Hurricane Simon has lashed Mexico’s Pacific coast, flooding streets in Manzanillo as it moved parallel to the shoreline. It was a Category 4 storm on Saturday and weakened to Category 3 on Sunday. The US National Hurricane Center says it will move offshore on Monday, then turn back towards the coast on Wednesday.
Hurricane Simon battered Mexico’s west-central coast on Sunday, October 11, flooding streets in Manzanillo and prompting President Claudia Sheinbaum to urge residents to stay indoors, Al Jazeera and DW reported.
How Strong It Got
Simon reached Category 4 on Saturday, with winds of up to 241 km/h (150 mph), as part of an unusually active Pacific hurricane season. By Sunday it had weakened to Category 3 but was still, the US National Hurricane Center said, “expected to be a strong hurricane as it passes near the coast of west-central Mexico”.
What Happened on Land
- In Manzanillo, residents waded through flooded streets and soldiers helped rescue people after overnight rain. “The whole house flooded,” resident Cecilia Palomar told Reuters
- Businesses in Puerto Vallarta boarded up windows and placed sandbags at entrances, and the city’s international airport was temporarily closed
- Jalisco suspended classes in 22 coastal municipalities and began evacuations
- Jalisco’s governor, Pablo Navarro, warned of “high-risk marine conditions”, with waves up to 8 metres (26 feet)
Alert Levels and Rainfall
Mexico’s civil protection authority put 28 municipalities in Jalisco and Colima under its highest cyclone alert, and another 93 under a high alert.
The hurricane centre warned of “additional rainfall totals of 8 to 16 inches (20 to 41 cm)” over parts of south-western Mexico, with totals as high as 76 cm (30 inches) possible in areas of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco until Monday, bringing “life-threatening flooding and mudslides” in steep terrain.
What Comes Next
Simon is expected to move farther offshore on Monday before turning back towards Mexico’s coast on Wednesday, the hurricane centre said. Senior forecaster Philippe Papin warned of “catastrophic wind and life-threatening storm surge impacts” along the west-central coast where the hurricane warning applied.
Sheinbaum urged residents of coastal municipalities in Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Michoacán to remain sheltered until authorities declare the danger over. The reports I read did not give casualty figures. Simon comes days after Hurricane Polo struck the Baja California Peninsula as a Category 2 storm, knocking down power lines and flooding streets.
Image: The beach at Zona Romántica in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, February 2025 (file photo). Photo: Another Believer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
