Hurricane Simon weakens to Category 3 as it skirts Mexico’s Pacific coast, flooding Manzanillo and prompting alerts
Hurricane Simon, now a Category 3 cyclone with sustained winds around 120 mph, moved northwest along Mexico’s Pacific shoreline, keeping its eye offshore. The storm produced torrential rain that flooded streets in Manzanillo, where soldiers helped residents and emergency shelters were opened. Mexican civil protection placed 28 municipalities in Jalisco and Colima under the highest alert and 93 under high alert, while Puerto Vallarta International Airport suspended operations.
In California, Long Beach’s Seaside Walk promenade suffered severe damage from earlier storms, with sections of its wooden barrier breached and mud and sand inundating nearby homes. Meteorologists expect further wave activity on Monday and Tuesday.
How this was covered
- Left-leaning outlets covered this 39h later
- Right-leaning coverage is the most divided on this story
Why it matters
The storm’s strong winds and flooding threaten homes, infrastructure and tourism along Mexico’s Pacific coast and have already caused damage in California.
How this story developed
- Sep 27 Tropical Storm Rachel Develops Near Mexico's Southwest Coast, Officials Warn
- Oct 5 A stalled cold front will keep Tampa Bay under gray, humid skies with daily showers, while a Gulf disturbance may become a tropical depression later this week.
- Oct 7 The National Hurricane Center now expects Isaias to intensify into a hurricane before Gulf Coast landfall.
- Oct 8 The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch from Bay St. Louis to Indian Pass and a hurricane warning for the Alabama coast.
- Oct 8 Tropical Storm Rachel is moving toward northern Baja and the Gulf of California, while Hurricane Simon is expected to become a major hurricane on Mexico’s west coast, and Hurricane Isaias is strengthening in the Atlantic toward the US Gulf.
- Oct 9 Waves from former Hurricane Rachel ripped apart the Long Beach Peninsula boardwalk, leaving a vacant home on the verge of falling into the sea.
- Oct 9 Hurricane Isaias, a Category 3 storm, battered the Gulf Coast with strong winds, heavy rain and tornado risk, while officials kept the Alabama-Georgia football game on schedule.
- Oct 10 Mobile, Alabama imposed a curfew as the storm approached.
- Oct 10 Isaias has weakened to a post‑tropical cyclone and is now moving northward inland.
- Oct 10 Rachel is now classified as a hurricane and Nolo has intensified to Category 3.
- Oct 11 Updated outage figures show Florida power losses falling to about 323,000 and Alabama outages exceeding 80,000.
- Oct 12 City crews began reinforcing the boardwalk’s timber bulkhead while distributing additional sandbags.
- Oct 12 Simon turned northwest, keeping its eye off the coast of Jalisco.
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