Hurricane Simon has weakened to a Category 3 storm as it moves parallel to Mexico’s Pacific coast, bringing heavy rainfall, strong winds and flooding to coastal communities.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Sunday that the storm had maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour (205 kilometres per hour) and was located about 175 kilometres west-northwest of the port city of Manzanillo at 6 p.m. local time.
Although further weakening was forecast, the NHC warned that Simon would remain a powerful hurricane as it passed near Mexico’s west-central coast.
The storm was moving northwest at about seven kilometres per hour and was expected to move farther offshore on Monday before turning back towards the coast on Wednesday.
In Manzanillo, residents waded through flooded streets on Sunday as soldiers helped families remove water from their homes following overnight rainfall.
One resident, Cecilia Palomar, told Reuters that the flooding had damaged furniture and household appliances.
“The beds, the refrigerators, the stoves, all the furniture got wet. The whole house flooded,” she said.
Palomar added that her elderly mother had been reluctant to leave her home despite the flooding, prompting the family to move her to a relative’s house on higher ground.
The NHC warned that hurricane conditions were likely already occurring in areas covered by hurricane warnings and could spread northwards overnight.
It forecast an additional 50 to 100 millimetres of rainfall across parts of Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa through early Thursday, with isolated locations potentially receiving up to 200 millimetres more.
Total rainfall could reach 760 millimetres in parts of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco, increasing the risk of life-threatening flooding and mudslides, particularly in mountainous areas.
The agency also warned of dangerous storm surges and destructive waves along sections of the coast.
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Mexican authorities placed 28 municipalities across Jalisco and Colima under the highest cyclone alert level, while another 93 municipalities were under high alert, according to civil protection bulletins.
Puerto Vallarta International Airport was temporarily closed, while authorities suspended non-essential activities and opened emergency shelters in vulnerable coastal communities.
Earlier on Sunday, President Claudia Sheinbaum urged residents in coastal areas of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Michoacan to remain indoors as the hurricane approached.
On Saturday, businesses in Manzanillo began boarding up their storefronts, while civil protection officials closed beaches and warned residents to stay away from the shore.
The storm comes days after Hurricane Polo struck Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula as a Category 2 hurricane, bringing down trees and power poles and flooding streets.
