Five dead as 100mph hurricane threatens Mexico with catastrophic flooding

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Severe weather swept across western Mexico on Monday as Hurricane Simon brought heavy rainfall and strong winds to the region, following tropical storms that left five people dead and inflicted damage on Pacific coastal communities and resorts.

Although the center of the Category 2 storm remained offshore, its outer rainbands struck coastal areas between the Pacific Ocean and the Sierra Madre mountains near Puerto Vallarta.

Meanwhile, flood warnings across the southwestern United States were largely withdrawn after weekend inundations in Las Vegas caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel began to clear.

In the state of Baja California, search-and-rescue teams searched inundated sections of Ensenada on Monday, where swollen waters tore through neighborhoods, damaging houses and carrying away vehicles. The state recorded at least four fatalities tied to the effects of post-tropical cyclone Rachel.

According to Jenn Soulat, a National Weather Service meteorologist located in Las Vegas, Rachel dissipated over the city on Sunday after delivering slightly more than an inch of rain, establishing a new record for October 11.

Local resident Johana Nuriulu recalled how the floodwaters rose suddenly overnight after a power failure caused by intense downpours. “We heard a loud noise that sounded like ocean waves, but really loud,” she said.

When she stepped outside, Nuriulu found that a nearby stream had burst its banks, sending a surge of water through her street that flooded houses and swept away cars and belongings. “Everything was being dragged away” Nuriulu said.

Elsewhere in Baja California, swollen rivers and mudslides isolated several communities.

Military helicopters carried out an afternoon rescue operation to airlift 32 individuals — including 22 foreign nationals — from a ranch in Ensenada. Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila reported that 13 of those rescued were minors.

State Secretary of Security Gen. Laureano Carrillo said the group included American and German missionaries attending a gathering at the ranch.

Ignacio Lozoya, the Baja California Civil Protection Coordinator, confirmed Monday evening that four bodies had been recovered in Ensenada: a 13-year-old girl found Sunday, along with two women and a 4-year-old boy recovered Monday.

Lozoya added that six people remain missing, comprising four residents in Ensenada and a father and son from San Felipe who failed to return from a Saturday fishing trip.

Ávila noted that approximately 14,000 federal and state personnel were deployed across Baja California to manage emergency operations and assist impacted residents.

Further south along the coast in Guerrero state, Simon knocked down power lines and trees, submerged homes, and obstructed roads, with major impacts in the port city of Acapulco, according to Gov. Evelyn Salgado.

In the state capital of Chilpancingo, a 71-year-old man was killed when a wall collapsed, Salgado confirmed.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center reported late Monday that Simon packed maximum sustained winds of 155 kph (100 mph) and was expected to retain hurricane status through the middle of the week.

The system is moving slowly toward western Mexico, where severe downpours could trigger life-threatening flash floods and mudslides prior to a potential landfall late Friday.

In Puerto Vallarta, conditions began to calm on Monday, allowing workers to remove protective boards from shopfronts as local businesses reopened. Operations at the city’s international airport were suspended until Tuesday morning.

“Personally, I think we should remain on alert because we don’t really know whether it will arrive, move elsewhere or dissipate,” said Noelia Carrillo, an employee at a local tourism agency.

As Rachel pushed north toward Southern California, it degraded into a post-tropical cyclone. High waves battered coastal neighborhoods in Long Beach, destroying part of a boardwalk, damaging beachfront houses, and prompting evacuations.

In Las Vegas, 1.08 inches (2.74 centimeters) of rainfall through Sunday morning equaled a daily October record originally set in 1947, the U.S. National Weather Service reported.

Social media footage showed heavy floodwaters running down a street near the Las Vegas Strip against the backdrop of casinos and a Ferris wheel.

Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the weather service, warned that localized flash flooding remained a concern for the area on Monday.

“We’ve seen the worst of what Rachel brought … but unfortunately we are looking at the disturbed weather still lingering,” Orrison said.

By late Monday, most flood warnings across Arizona, Utah, and other parts of the Southwest had been lifted.

In Utah, severe flooding stranded dozens of participants and volunteers in the Moab 240 ultramarathon, requiring emergency evacuations on Sunday from the course, which spans Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.

Orrison clarified that this additional rainfall stemmed from a separate weather system moving across the West rather than Rachel, with conditions expected to clear by Wednesday.

In the Southeastern U.S., utility crews continued restoring electricity after Hurricane Isaias passed.

At least four fatalities were attributed to Isaias, the initial hurricane of the Atlantic season. The storm made landfall Friday near Destin, Florida — a Gulf Coast resort town with high-rise buildings and tourist shops — as a Category 2 hurricane, then moved into Alabama with tropical-storm-force winds before eventually breaking apart farther north.

According to poweroutage.com, roughly 106,000 customers in southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were still without power on Monday evening. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expected to restore power to nearly all residents by Tuesday night and announced that schools would reopen Wednesday.

Drier conditions are projected to return over the coming days across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic, including the southern Appalachian region.

Orrison noted that temperatures across those areas will rise above seasonal averages this week, making conditions feel “a little summerish”.

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