Hurricane Willa slams Mexico coast

HURRICANE Willa crashed ashore in western Mexico on Tuesday, lashing the Pacific coast with powerful winds and heavy rain before weakening to a tropical depression as it moved inland.

The powerful storm, which was a maximum Category 5 hurricane on Monday, had weakened to Category 3 as it moved toward land.

Forecasters warned that the storm still had the potential to unleash deadly flooding and landslides.

With the ground saturated by rain, “there could be mudslides, landslides, flooding of rivers and creeks and washed out roads,” Mexico’s national weather service said.

However, storm surge levels were expected subside over the course of yesterday and Willa is expected to dissipate by the afternoon, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Willa first swept over the Marias islands, where Mexico has a federal prison. The interior ministry did not respond to questions on whether it had evacuated the 1,000 inmates or what other emergency measures were in place.

“We do not have any reports of damages there so far,” the head of Mexico’s emergency services, Luis Felipe Puente, told reporters.

More than 4,250 people were evacuated from high-risk areas.

At a shelter in Escuinapa, a town of 30,000 that sits in the middle of the hurricane’s path, residents fretted over their houses as they waited out the storm.

“Let’s just hope this is over soon so we can go home,” said Epigmenio Cardenas, 44, a farmer who was among the 2,500 people huddled there.