Hurricane Simon threatens Puerto Vallarta with catastrophic winds and flooding

PUERTO VALLARTA — Hurricane Simon pounded Mexico's Pacific coast as a Category 4 storm on Sunday, its eye remaining just offshore as its most powerful winds and rain slammed people living between the Sierra Madre and the ocean.

The hurricane's centre swirled parallel to the coast, closing in on the Puerto Vallarta area, where its most damaging winds and rain were expected to hit around midnight and continue through Monday morning.

Its maximum sustained winds weakened Sunday to 215 km/h, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, but it was still expected to remain a dangerous hurricane.

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"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," said senior hurricane centre specialist Phillipe Pappin.

He said the westernmost tip of mainland Mexico near Cabo Corrientes is the area most likely to get a direct hit.

The hurricane could bring 25 to 50 centimetres of rain over parts of southwestern Mexico, with some areas in the states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco receiving up to 76 centimetres.

"This rainfall will produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain," the centre warned.

As the storm approached Puerto Vallarta, National Guard vehicles patrolled the streets while police used a megaphone to call out the few people who were jogging, walking their dogs or biking by the waterfront.

Officers reminded people that the area was closed and urged them to take shelter.

Jalisco state suspended classes on Friday and Monday in 22 coastal municipalities and began evacuating people from at-risk areas.

It also asked the tourism sector in Puerto Vallarta to ensure that both workers and visitors were fully accommodated in shelters or safe zones.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum took to the social platform X on Sunday to urge people in Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Michoacan to stay sheltered until the government issues a notification that the danger has passed.

"Precautionary evacuation efforts to safe zones are ongoing; the priority is our safety," she wrote.

Hotel worker Víctor Martínez went shopping for nonperishable food Sunday afternoon.

He said he could not go to work because public transportation service was suspended and most of the hotel had been evacuated.

"It happened to us before. It hit us years ago," Martínez said, referring to a Category 5 hurricane that hit the area in 2002.

"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."

Despite the risks posed by Simon, tourists were still arriving in Puerto Vallarta.

Visitors Ricardo Ramírez and Brenda Villarreal, who have never lived through a hurricane, went looking for food by the city's boardwalk and came across police urging people to take shelter.

"The boardwalk is closed. Be responsible. Understand!" police told passersby using a megaphone.

Ramírez said they were completely unprepared for the situation.

"We don't know the extent of the danger yet," Villarreal said.

"We're just starting to see what's going on."

Convenience stores, hotels and other businesses in Puerto Vallarta were boarding up their windows Saturday, and few were walking the streets under overcast skies.

"Let's hope it doesn't hit us, right? That it doesn't affect us," Jesús Gómez said as he stood outside a shop and handed out free samples of candied peanuts to passersby.

Canadian tourist Ed Currie, who along with his wife still has five more days to enjoy Puerto Vallarta, said the hurricane had not yet affected his plans.

"Just stay in the hotel and look out the window hopefully," he said of what the couple would do.

"I just don't know what to expect."

With files from Global News, Castanet and KTVN