Willa gives Mexico a scare; Michael still causing much stress in Florida

Once a powerful Category 5 storm, Hurricane Willa made landfall Tuesday on Mexico’s Pacific Coast as a much weaker but blustery tropical storm, causing more than 4,000 evacuations — many from the area’s coastal resorts — knocking out power and causing some damage.

Willa did become a rainmaker in Texas and the South, causing some flooding and fueled a frigid nor’easter on the Eastern Seaboard.

The back-to-back systems of Willa and Vicente have helped make the 2018 hurricane season in the northeast Pacific one for the record books. There have been 10 major hurricanes this year, including Willa, tying 1992 as the most major hurricanes in the northeast Pacific in one year.

Increasing numbers of major hurricanes, along with a greater propensity of storms to undergo “rapid intensification,” are expected consequences of warmer ocean waters resulting from climate change. The ocean waters off Mexico’s western coast are running 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit above average for late October.

Meanwhile in the Flori- da Panhandle, nearly two weeks after monster Hurricane Michael decimated the coast, emergency workers and authorities are reporting increasing signs of mental stress as many families work to piece together their lives. The issues could continue as a short-term disaster turns into a long-term recovery that will take years.

A resident makes repairs to his hurricanedamaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Willa in Escuinapa, Mexico. There were no immediate reports of deaths or missing people, but Willa's strong winds knocked out power and left some damage. Marco Ugarte / AP