Hurricane John, a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, made landfall Monday night in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. The hurricane is expected to bring heavy rain to parts of the country, and classes have been suspended in some areas.
According to information from the National Weather Service (NWS), when it made landfall, it did so with winds of 195 kilometers per hour and gusts of 220 kilometers. At 21:30 local time (03:30 GMT Tuesday), the cyclone, the tenth of the Pacific season and the second to pass over Mexican territory, was located on land, 10 kilometers east of Copala and 40 km northwest of Punta Maldonado, two towns in the state of Guerrero.
John’s blow hits the state of Guerrero after Acapulco suffered a year ago the passage of Hurricane Otis, the most powerful cyclone of last season, which made landfall on October 25 as a Category 5 hurricane, with sustained winds of 260 km/h, causing at least 51 deaths and 34 missing, and losses of approximately 3.2 billion dollars.
This evening, as it enters the territory, John has sustained winds of 195 km/h and gusts of 220 km/h and is now moving north.
John’s broad circulation will generate occasional extraordinary rainfall (over 250 mm) in Oaxaca and Guerrero, and occasional torrential rains (150 to 250 mm) in Chiapas. It also predicted winds with gusts of 200 to 220 km/h and waves of 5 to 7 meters high in western Oaxaca and eastern Guerrero.
The Mexican Meteorological Service has asked the population to take extreme precautions, especially in maritime navigation, as well as to comply with the recommendations issued by the Civil Protection authorities. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has asked the population to take precautions. “Seek the heights, protect yourself and do not forget that the most important thing is life; the material is replaced. We will wait,” he added.
In Guerrero, the head of Civil Protection, Laura Velázquez, and the governor of the state, Evelyn Salgado, as well as the military authorities declared their readiness for the deployment of the DN-III Plan, in the face of natural disasters with agents of the Army, Navy and National Guard in the municipalities of Cuajinicuilapa, Copala, Florencio Villarreal and Marquelia, in the region of Costa Chica, Guerrero, where 299 shelters have been opened for the population in danger.
Additionally, this Monday, authorities in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero decided to suspend classes at all school levels due to the impact of John.
Last week, Hurricane Ileana hit the northwestern state of Sinaloa, causing minor damage, while three hurricanes hit Mexico from the Atlantic: Hurricane Beryl and Hurricane Chris, which caused losses in July, and Hurricane Alberto in June, when it killed six people in Nuevo León, a state on Mexico’s northern border.
Mexican authorities were predicting up to 41 named hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in May, with at least five hitting the country.
