Residents, tourists hunker down as Hurricane Erick pounds the Mexican coast

Erick, a category 4 hurricane on a scale of 5, made landfall in the Mexican state of Oaxaca on the Pacific coast. Photo / Carlo Echegoyen, AFP

Southern Mexico started a major cleanup on Thursday after Hurricane Erick, which slammed into its Pacific coast as a powerful Category 3 storm, then weakened as it headed inland.

In the tourist town of Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca state, residents and emergency personnel worked to drain flooded streets and clear debris left behind as the storm knocked over trees and street signs and buried boats under sand on the beach.

Much of the town of about 30,000 people was left without electricity or cellphone coverage.

The water “had never hit with this magnitude” in Puerto Escondido, 44-year-old merchant Luis Alberto Gil, whose shop was among those flooded, told AFP.

The Government deployed hundreds of troops and electricity workers for the cleanup operation.

The storm dropped to a Category 1 storm but the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) still warned that flooding rains and hurricane-force winds would persist as Erick heads north.

Dangerous storm surge

Maximum sustained winds in Oaxaca reached 205km/h in the early hours before slowing to 140km/h.

An alert remained in place for life-threatening flooding and mudslides in the southern states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, with wind gusts continuing for several hours, and a “dangerous, life-threatening storm surge” expected to produce coastal flooding and large, destructive waves, the NHC said.

Oaxaca and Guerrero shuttered schools, air terminals and ports – including at Acapulco, and suspended non-essential activities.

Rains also affected the states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco.

“Continued rapid weakening is forecast, and Erick will likely dissipate tonight,” according to the latest NHC advisory issued at 1400 GMT.

Major storms lash Mexico’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts every year, usually between May and November.

In October 2023, Acapulco was pummelled by Hurricane Otis, a powerful Category 5 storm that killed dozens of people.

Hurricane John, another Category 3 storm that hit Acapulco in September last year, caused about 15 deaths.

President Claudia Sheinbaum had urged people to avoid going out and advised those living in low-lying areas or near rivers to move to shelters – some 2000 of which had been set up in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca in anticipation.

“Since [Erick] just made landfall, we are in contact with the Defense [department] and the Navy, who are in the area, and we will be able to inform in a few hours what the effects are on these populations,” she said at her daily press conference pn Thursday.

In Puerto Escondido, restaurants remained shuttered even though some tourists insisted on staying and riding out the storm.

About 400km north along the Pacific coast, Acapulco – a major port and resort city famous for its nightlife – was largely deserted on Thursday as residents heeded calls to hunker down, with shops boarded up and tourist boats grounded.

Many had stocked up the day before on food, water and fuel.

-Agence France-Presse