Hurricane Erick, the fifth tempest of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, is gathering momentum as it heads towards Mexico.
On Wednesday morning, the National Hurricane Centre announced that Erick is predicted to escalate rapidly today and evolve into a significant hurricane as it nears southern Mexico by Thursday.
Erick was upgraded to a Category 2 storm with nearly 100 mph sustained winds and higher gusts. Hurricane-force winds extend 15 miles, while tropical storm-force winds reach 105 miles from its centre.
The storm is anticipated to strike the southern coast of Mexico Wednesday night and then move inland on Thursday. Consequently, there’s a hurricane warning in effect from Acapulco to Puerto Ángel, and a hurricane watch for areas west of Acapulco to Tecpan de Galeana, reports the Mirror US.
A tropical storm warning is also in place from east of Puerto Ángel to Salina Cruz and for the area west of Acapulco to Tecpan de Galeana.
The National Hurricane Centre reported that Tropical Storm Erick is intensifying in speed and is expected to develop into a major hurricane before making landfall. A major hurricane is classified as Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, which means it will have winds between 111 mph and 129 mph-enough to cause some serious damage, according to NOAA.
Erick is set to unleash a torrent of rain across regions in Oaxaca and Guerrero, with forecasts from the National Hurricane Center indicating potential accumulations of 8 to 16 inches and up to 20 inches in some places. These heavy downpours could trigger devastating floods and mudslides, particularly in areas of steep relief.
Meanwhile, residents in Chiapas, Michoacán, Colima, Jalisco, and Mexico City should brace for around 2 to 4 inches of rainfall.
An ominous storm surge looms, threatening to raise sea levels during the storm’s onslaught, causing coastal flooding alongside large, potentially ruinous waves.
Acapulco, still reeling from October 2023’s Hurricane Otis, is once again in Erick’s crosshairs. Otis, a Category 5 behemoth, wreaked havoc with wind speeds that escalated to 115 mph within a mere day, registering as one of the meteoric intensifications on record.
“We are left with nothing,” lamented one woman to CBS in the aftermath of the disaster, adding, “Everything is damaged.”
