Hurricane Trudy is bearing down on Mexico’s Pacific coast as a major hurricane this weekend, threatening life-threatening flooding and landslides across three states — days after the storm first strengthened to Category 3.
Trudy weakened slightly on Friday but remained dangerous, packing winds of up to 140km/h, and forecasters warned it could regain strength as its centre nears the coast of Jalisco and Colima late on Saturday, according to Reuters’ reporting. The US National Hurricane Center said hurricane conditions were expected in the warning area by Saturday night.
Up to 15 inches of rain
The storm is expected to dump 4 to 8 inches of rain, with isolated totals up to 15 inches, across Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco — “life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas along steep terrain,” the NHC warned. “Everyone in this region needs to be very careful and stay alert over the weekend,” said Fabian Vazquez, head of Mexico’s weather agency.
In Acapulco, fishermen pulled their boats ashore after authorities closed fishing and tourist ports to small vessels. Mexico’s civil protection agency urged residents to secure doors and windows and clear objects that high winds could turn into projectiles.
A battered coastline
Trudy is the latest in a punishing stretch for Mexico’s Pacific coast, already hit in recent weeks by storms that left several dead and caused severe flooding — the kind of clustering climate trackers warn is becoming more common. Forecasters say the storm’s exact track matters enormously: a landfall near Manzanillo would drive the worst surge and wind damage, while a track hugging the coast longer would spread extreme rainfall across a wider area.
Either way, emergency services are preparing for the worst. How closely Trudy’s centre hugs the shore will decide the scale of the damage; the weekend will be measured in rainfall totals and, authorities hope, not in lives.
