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Simon has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it heads toward Mexico’s Pacific coast.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Saturday that Simon’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 155 miles per hour.
The hurricane center said it expected Simon to approach Mexico’s west-central coast on Sunday as a major hurricane, defined as a Category 3 storm or stronger, with winds of at least 111 mph.
Simon was just below a Category 5 classification on Saturday night, which requires maximum sustained winds of 157 mph. Forecasters said Simon could weaken quickly if its core moves fully onshore when it makes landfall.
The hurricane could bring as much as 10 to 20 inches of rain across parts of southwestern Mexico, with some areas in the states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco receiving up to 30 inches.
“This rainfall will produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain,” the center warned in a bulletin, which also urged residents to take immediate action to prepare as tropical storm conditions arrived Saturday afternoon.
According to the hurricane center, Simon was about 65 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico on Saturday and was moving slowly north at 5 mph.
“Preparations to protect life and property should be completed in the hurricane warning area before conditions worsen later this evening,” the hurricane center warned.
Jalisco state suspended classes on Monday in 22 coastal municipalities and began evacuating dozens of people from at-risk areas. It also asked the tourism sector in Puerto Vallarta, a popular destination for US tourists, to ensure that both workers and visitors were fully housed in shelters or safe zones by Friday afternoon.
Convenience stores, hotels and other businesses in Puerto Vallarta had their windows boarded up Saturday morning, as few were out on the streets under overcast skies.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t hit us, right? That it doesn’t affect us,” said Jesús Gómez as he stood outside a store handing out free samples of candied peanuts to passersby. “We will work all day as usual, but if the civil protection officials come and tell us we have to close, we will close and shelter until the storm passes.”
The hurricane center expects dangerous storm surge “along the immediate coast near and to the east of where the center makes landfall.” The agency warned that near the coast large and destructive waves accompany the current.
Meanwhile, Canadian tourist Ed Currie, who along with his wife has five more days to enjoy Puerto Vallarta, said the hurricane has not yet affected his plans.
“Just stay in the hotel and hopefully look out the window,” he said of what the pair would do on Saturday. “I just don’t know what to expect.”
Unlike the Atlantic, which just saw called his first hurricane of the season this week with Isaias, the Pacific season was very active. Simon’s arrival comes on the heels from polowhich beat Mexico last week as a Category 2 hurricane before reaching the southwestern US and bringing severe flooding to the region.
