Mexico’s Pacific coastline braced for a potentially devastating strike Saturday after Hurricane Simon rapidly intensified into a Category 4 storm, with forecasters warning it could make landfall or scrape along the shore of west-central Mexico.
The US National Hurricane Center said Simon’s strength could still fluctuate until its core reaches the coast, but the system was already packing maximum sustained winds of 249km/h per hour, according to the latest update.
“Significant or catastrophic wind, surge, and rainfall appears likely over portions of west-central Mexico,” the centre added.
“Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion shortly in the hurricane warning area.”
The looming threat in the Pacific comes as Florida begins tallying the damage left behind by Isaias, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, which killed at least four people in the southeastern United States.
In Florida and Alabama, two of the deaths occurred when trees fell onto homes, and meteorologists warned that flooding from the storm could push inland as far as the Appalachians.
Simon is the latest system in an unusually active Pacific hurricane season, where the powerful El Niño ocean warming phenomenon is weakening wind shear — conditions that can allow storms to intensify more easily.
Mexico’s Navy said it had evacuated around 100 people from settlements along the country’s west coast as Simon approached.
“Three years ago, we lost everything,” said Elena Gulmas, 63, recalling 2023’s Hurricane Lidia. “Now I say, life comes first.”
In Puerto Vallarta, a major Pacific tourist hub, the sky turned overcast even as the sea remained relatively calm.
Jalisco state, where Puerto Vallarta is located, issued a red alert for several municipalities.
The airport has also suspended operations.
A house was swept away by heavy rains ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Simon in Acapulco
Tourist destinations prepare for storm
Farther south, torrential rains linked to Simon had already triggered flooding in Acapulco, another prominent tourist destination.
Yet in Puerto Vallarta — set on a broad, horseshoe-shaped bay that can help blunt a hurricane’s force — many residents appeared largely unfazed.
Some shopkeepers stacked sandbags at storefronts and boarded up doors and windows, but the atmosphere along the streets suggested only muted alarm.
“What people are most scared of is that the water will reach a tall height… like it did with Hurricane Kenna,” said Paulina Perez, who owns a furniture boutique on the boardwalk, referring to the 2002 storm that killed at least four people.
Inside her store, she posted a handwritten message: “Simon, be brief, be peaceful.”
Elsewhere, someone had spray-painted a different message on a board — “Simon says: ‘Everything is going to be alright'” — riffing on the name of the popular children’s game.
Moises Villasenor, 72, said he was “a little worried” as he packed sandbags around his small hotel, about three blocks from the seafront.
Still, he struck an upbeat note. “We’re very positive,” he said.
Visitors also remained calm.
“We’re going to enjoy it as much as we can, even if it’s just for today,” said Edna Morales, 41, who arrived Friday from northern Mexico with her husband to mark their wedding anniversary.
Officials said residents would be ordered to take shelter beginning at 5pm local time.
The region is still fresh off last week’s Hurricane Polo, which made landfall on the Baja California Peninsula as a Category 2 storm, knocking down trees and utility poles, flooding streets and damaging property.
