Storm intensified to category 3 hurricane before weakening as NHC warns slow pace could cause floods and mudslides
Tropical Storm John has made landfall on Mexico’s southern Pacific coast with life-threatening flood potential after growing into a major hurricane in a matter of hours.
It came ashore near the town of Punta Maldonado late on Monday as a category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120mph (190km/h). It weakened back to tropical storm status early on Tuesday with maximum sustained wind speeds of 50mph (85km/h) and was expected to weaken rapidly.
Still, the United States National Hurricane Center warned that the storm’s slow pace and heavy rains could cause potentially catastrophic flash flooding and mudslides in some Mexican states.
“Seek higher ground, protect yourselves and do not forget that life is the most important thing; material things can be replaced. We are here,” the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, wrote on the social media platform X.
The storm was expected to batter Punta Maldonado and the nearby tourist hubs Acapulco and Puerto Escondido before being weakened over the high terrain inland.
The center said heavy rainfall over coastal south-west Mexico through the week was likely to cause “significant and possible catastrophic, life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides” in parts of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero states.
