Mazatlan is a popular vacation spot and home to a large number of American and Canadian expatriates.Īt midafternoon, Willa was centered about 110 miles (175 kilometers) west-southwest of Cabo Corrientes and moving north at 8 mph (13 kph).
“The people don’t want to evacuate, but it’s for their security,” he said.Ībout 60 miles (100 kilometers) up the coast in Mazatlan, with a metropolitan-area population of about 500,000, Mayor Jose Joel Boucieguez said officials prepared shelters and were closely monitoring low-lying areas. He estimated 3,000 were affected but he expected some would try to stay. The governments of Sinaloa and Nayarit ordered coastal region schools to close and began preparing emergency shelters.Įnrique Moreno, mayor of Escuinapa, a municipality of about 60,000 people on Willa’s track, said officials were trying to evacuate everybody in the seaside village of Teacapan. Yamile Bustamante, assistant general manager at the Crown Plaza de Mazatlan, said hotel executives were not ruling out the possibility of evacuating guests but were awaiting instructions from authorities. It was projected to weaken somewhat before hitting land but was still expected to be extremely dangerous.Ī map that shows the projected path of Hurricane Willa as of Monday morning. The hurricane was expected to pass over or near the Islas Marias - a set of islands about 60 miles (96 kilometers) offshore that include a nature preserve and a federal prison - early Tuesday.įorecasters said Willa would then blow ashore in the afternoon or evening somewhere along a 140-mile (220-kilometer) stretch extending from the resort town of Mazatlan to San Blas. A decree of “extraordinary emergency” was issued for 19 municipalities in Nayarit and Sinaloa states, the federal Interior Department announced. Hotel workers started taping up windows, and officials began evacuating thousands of people and shuttered schools in a low-lying landscape where towns sit amid farmland tucked between the sea and lagoons. But it remained “extremely dangerous” and was expected to bring “life-threatening storm surge, wind and rainfall” to parts of west-central and southwestern Mexico ahead of an expected Tuesday landfall, the U.S. Jeff Berardelli contributed to this report.MEXICO CITY - A potential catastrophic Hurricane Willa swept toward Mexico’s Pacific coast with winds of 155 mph (250 kph) Monday, threatening a stretch of high-rise resort hotels, surfing beaches and fishing villages.Īfter briefly reaching Category 5 strength, the storm’s maximum sustained winds weakened slightly to Category 4 at midafternoon. "It's going to retain its identity and then kinda merge with Gulf of Mexico moisture, a big front that's going to be swinging down from the Great Lakes," Berardelli said on CBSN, "and we're going to be talking about a major nor'easter for us here in New York City but really up and down the whole Eastern Seaboard." After leaving Mexico, Willa, which absorbed moisture from Vicente's remnants, was expected to drop between 1 and 3 inches of rain in already saturated parts of Texas.īy Friday, Willa is expected to become a nor'easter and threaten parts of the Eastern Seaboard. Officials in Oaxaca state said seven adults and five children had lost their lives in drownings or mudslides. Local officials earlier put the figure at 12. Federal disaster agency chief Luis Felipe Puente said 11 people died as a result of Vicente. 23, 2018.įarther to the south, the remnants of Tropical Storm Vicente continued to bring heavy rain that caused deadly flooding and mudslides in southern and southwestern Mexico. Tourists from Oregon play cards as they wait out the storm in a temporary shelter in Mazatlan on Tuesday, Oct.
Forecasters said Willa could bring 6 to 12 inches of rain, with up to 18 inches in some areas. Hurricane-force winds extended 35 miles from the storm's center, and tropical storm-force winds were up to 115 miles out. "I come from a country where we have hurricanes and vicious storms, so I'm kind of waiting with bated breath," he said over the phone while sitting on his porch and smoking a cigarette.
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