In the Pacific, a tropical beast
On its way to Mexico’s coast, Hurricane Willa roars into a set of Mexican islands housing a prison colony.
MAZATLAN, Mexico — Hurricane Willa roared over Mexico’s Pacific coast with 120 mph winds Tuesday night, threatening a major resort area along with fishing villages and farms.
Emergency officials said they evacuated more than 4,250 people in coastal towns and set up 58 shelters ahead of the Category 3 storm.
Willa’s center was about 50 miles south-southeast of Mazatlan, a tourist spot of high-rise hotels with about 500,000 people, many of them U.S. and Canadian expatriates. The storm was heading to the northnortheast at 10 mph, barreling toward a stretch of land just south of the beach resort city.
Willa briefly reached Category 5 strength Monday, then weakened to a Category 3. But the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that it was still likely to bring life-threatening storm surge, wind and rain to parts of western Mexico. Willa was bringing torrential rain.
Earlier, the storm battered the Islas Marias, a group of Mexican islands about 60 miles off the mainland that include a nature preserve and a federal prison.
As Willa closed in on Mazatlan, the beach almost disappeared, with waves slamming against the coastal boulevard under looming black clouds. A few surfers took advantage of the high waves even as workers boarded up windows on hotels, shops and homes. Schools were closed and the streets nearly empty.
Some families went to a Mazatlan convention center, which opened its doors as a shelter. They spread out blankets along the walls and waited for the storm.
“The house we’re living in is not well built,” said Sergio Ernesto Meri Franco, who rents a studio apartment.
The federal government issued a decree of “extraordinary emergency” for 19 municipalities in Nayarit and Sinaloa states.
Bob Swanson, who is from Saskatchewan, Canada, and spends two to six months of the year in his house in the Cerritos neighborhood near the shore in Mazatlan, said he filled his washing machine with water, filled his home fuel tank and gassed up his car in case he needs to head into the mountains for safety.
“I’m kind of waiting with bated breath,” he said over the phone.
Enrique Moreno, mayor of Escuinapa, a municipality of about 60,000 people along Willa’s potential track, said officials were trying to evacuate everybody in the seaside village of Teacapan.
He estimated 3,000 were affected, but he expected some would try to stay.
“The people don’t want to evacuate, but it’s for their security,” he said.
Hurricane-force winds extended 35 miles from Willa’s center, and tropical storm-force winds were felt up to 115 miles out.
Forecasters said the hurricane could bring 6 to 12 inches of rain — with up to 18 inches in some places — to parts of Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa states, with flash flooding and landslides possible in mountainous areas.
Farther to the south, the remnants of Tropical Storm Vicente continued to bring heavy rain that caused deadly flooding and mudslides.
Federal disaster agency chief Luis Felipe Puente said 11 people drowned or were killed in mudslides Oaxaca state as a result of Vicente. Local officials earlier put the figure at 12.