Hurricane Simon tore along Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 3 storm on Sunday, its eye staying just offshore while powerful winds and rain battered communities wedged between the Sierra Madre mountains and the ocean.
The storm’s center moved parallel to the coastline as it closed in on the Puerto Vallarta area, with the worst winds and rain expected to arrive around midnight and continue into Monday morning.
Maximum sustained winds had weakened slightly to 120 mph by Sunday, according to the US National Hurricane Center in Miami, but forecasters warned Simon would remain a dangerous hurricane. That poses a particular threat to the hillside communities just inland from Puerto Vallarta’s resorts, where housing is often less able to withstand severe weather.
By Sunday afternoon, the storm’s eye was about 45 miles south of Cabo Corrientes and moving northwest at roughly 5 mph. Senior hurricane center specialist Philippe Papin said that stretch of coastline, at the southern edge of Bahia de Banderas where Puerto Vallarta sits, is the area most likely to take a direct hit.
Hurricane-force winds extend up to 15 miles from Simon’s center, with tropical-storm-force winds reaching as far as 60 miles out, putting the entire region between the coast and the Sierra Madre at risk.
“We’re expecting catastrophic wind and life-threatening storm surge impacts along that west-central coast of Mexico where the hurricane warning is currently in effect,” Papin said. “They’re also getting very heavy rainfall associated with the storm that’s likely going to produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides in areas of higher terrain along the Mexican coastline, and there will be significant swells.”
The hurricane center said Simon is expected to drop 2 to 4 additional inches of rain, with isolated totals up to 8 inches, across Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa through early Thursday. In parts of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco, isolated storm totals could reach as high as 30 inches, the center said in its latest advisory, warning the rainfall “will produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides or worsen any on-going flooding, especially in areas of steep terrain.”
Evacuations and warnings
As Simon approached, National Guard vehicles patrolled Puerto Vallarta’s streets while police used megaphones to order the few remaining joggers, dog walkers and cyclists off the waterfront, reminding them the area was closed and urging them to seek shelter.
Jalisco state suspended classes Friday and Monday in 22 coastal municipalities and began evacuating people from at-risk areas, while asking the tourism industry to ensure workers and visitors were placed in shelters or safe zones.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum posted on X on Sunday urging residents of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Michoacan to remain sheltered until the government announces the danger has passed, and asked people to follow civil protection guidance and avoid traveling on public roads.
“Precautionary evacuation efforts to safe zones are ongoing; the priority is our safety,” Sheinbaum wrote.
Residents and tourists brace differently
Hotel worker VÃctor MartÃnez spent Sunday afternoon shopping for nonperishable food, unable to get to work after public transportation was suspended and most of his hotel was evacuated. MartÃnez said he found some comfort in how seriously people were now taking the threat, recalling the Category 5 hurricane that struck the region in 2002.
“It happened to us before. It hit us years ago,” MartÃnez said. “People didn’t expect it. We were very skeptical that it would ever hit us. Now, though, we’re different. Precautions are being taken. It happened to us once, and we won’t let it happen again.”
Even so, tourists kept arriving in Puerto Vallarta. Visitors Ricardo RamÃrez and Brenda Villarreal, who said they had never experienced a hurricane, were searching for food along the city’s boardwalk when they encountered police urging people to clear the area.
Police could be heard telling passersby through a megaphone: “The boardwalk is closed. Be responsible. Understand!”
RamÃrez said he and Villarreal had planned the four-day trip from Guadalajara, Jalisco’s capital, since last year. “We don’t know the extent of the danger yet,” Villarreal said. “We’re just starting to see what’s going on.”
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