Three states on Mexico’s southern coast braced for Hurricane Erick to crash onto land as a likely Category 3 storm early Thursday, with the authorities warning of powerful winds and a deluge of rain.
“We tell the population to stay tuned to official communications, to stay indoors, and not go out,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a news conference on Wednesday morning. “If you are in low-lying areas, near rivers, near waterways, it is best for you to go to shelters, to the shelters that have already been set up for this situation.”
She added, “Anyone who has a boat should not go out.”
The Mexican government called for emergency measures to be taken on Wednesday in preparation for the storm, warning that it could intensify further before making landfall. More than 2,000 temporary shelters were set up across the three states, Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, the Mexican government said in a statement.
The storm was predicted to reach land on the borders of Oaxaca and Guerrero, the warning said. The government urged the public “not to be complacent, to take care of themselves and follow the authorities’ instructions.”
Erick became a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday afternoon, and its winds were already strong enough to hurl objects off the ground, down some trees, break branches and tear off roof shingles. The authorities said they were monitoring the levels of dams, rivers and other bodies of water, and warned people about flash flooding.
The authorities said they expected the worst consequences of the storm in an area stretching from Puerto Ángel, in Oaxaca, to Punta Maldonado, in Guerrero, but that hurricane effects could reach much farther, including in the Oaxacan resort town of Bahías de Huatulco and Guerrero’s tourist haven of Acapulco.
Mexico’s southern Pacific Coast was badly hit in 2023 by Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 storm that devastated Acapulco, sinking yachts, fishing boats and tourist vessels and smashing hotels and homes. More than 50 people were killed after it rapidly intensified into a monster storm with winds of 165 miles per hour.
Erick is the fifth named storm to form in the Eastern Pacific this year. The Pacific hurricane season, like the Atlantic season, runs through Nov. 30.
Elda Cantú, an editor in the Mexico City bureau, writes El Times, a newsletter in Spanish. She also reports on current events in Mexico and Central America.
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