Mexico’s beleaguered Pacific coast braces for another storm in record hurricane year
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coast → brace → year
Mexico’s Pacific coast is still cleaning up flood and mudslide damage as another major storm threatens
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storm → clean → damage
Ten hurricanes have formed in the eastern Pacific this year, the most since 2018.
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hurricanes → form → 2018
Experts say El Niño and climate change are fueling unusually strong and long-lasting storms.
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Niño → say → storms
Javier Soto and his neighbors had just begun cleaning up flood and mudslide damage from the last hurricane when another major storm began brewing in the Pacific Ocean, once again threatening their community north of Puerto Vallarta.
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storm → begin → Vallarta
“We get through one storm only to face another,” said Soto, 39, a travel agent in the beach town of Bahía de Banderas, where it has been raining for weeks straight.
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it → get → weeks
“It feels like a tunnel with no exit in sight.”
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It → feel → sight
A record-shattering hurricane season in the eastern Pacific has been battering Mexico’s Pacific coast, bringing death and destruction to states including Guerrero, Jalisco, Nayarit, Colima and Baja California.
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season → shatter → Guerrero
Ten hurricanes have formed in the eastern Pacific so far this year, the most since 2018.
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hurricanes → form → 2018
And more are predicted.
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more → predict → ?
Meteorologists say a powerful El Niño and warmer ocean temperatures caused by climate change have super
charged the storms, which have lasted longer than usual and have sustained stronger winds than is typical.
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which → say → winds
The latest storm is Trudy, a Category 1 hurricane that was expected to pass Mexico’s southwestern coast on Sunday.
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that → expect → Sunday
Authorities from Guerrero to Nayarit warned that Trudy could strengthen, and said heavy rainfall could cause major damage because the ground is already saturated from previous storms.
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ground → warn → storms
But many say this year feels different because long-lasting storms have hit in quick succession, giving residents little chance to clean up and dry out.
“You haven’t even recovered from one storm when the next one arrives,” said Ricardo Trejo, 43, a restaurant manager in Acapulco.
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Trejo → say → Acapulco
The famed resort town was hit by Hurricane Polo in late September and again by Hurricane Simon days later.
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town → hit → Simon
As Trudy approached this week, Trejo and his staff found themselves once again boarding up their seaside cafe — while bracing themselves for lost income and potential damage.
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themselves → approach → income
“Every hurricane leaves behind disaster and financial loss,” Trejo said.
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Trejo → leave → disaster
“Tourism drops, work is lost, families suffer, kids miss school.”
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kids → drop → school
The Baja California Peninsula has also been battered by a series of powerful storms — first Polo and then Rachel.
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Peninsula → batter → storms
Authorities said eight people were killed in Ensenada, a beach town just south of the U.S. border.
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people → say → border
Residents there say roads and beaches are still badly damaged, and that more government support is needed.
“We are asking the government to declare a disaster zone so that more financial resources will arrive,” said Gerardo Gutiérrez, 56.
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Gutiérrez → say → zone
“We neighbors are cleaning everything by ourselves.”
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We → clean → ourselves
Roberto Flores, a 53-year-old shop owner in Loreto, an even more remote town on the Baja Peninsula, said locals were also waiting for more help from federal authorities.
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locals → say → authorities
“We survive here because we help one another — neighbors helping neighbors,” Flores said.
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Flores → survive → neighbors
“Were it not for that, we would be completely abandoned.”
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we → abandon → that
Flores and others said they were unnerved by this year’s storm season, and worried that it was a consequence of humans throwing the natural world out of balance.
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humans → say → balance
“Those of us who live here know that hurricanes are normal, but what isn’t normal is having them one after another without a break, and all of them severe,” he said.
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he → live → them
In 2023, Mexico’s Pacific coast was hit by its most powerful storm on record, Otis, which slammed into Acapulco as a Category 5 hurricane after strengthening rapidly.
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which → hit → hurricane
Meteorologists blamed its rapid growth on unseasonably warm ocean temperatures triggered by El Niño and human-caused climate change.
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Meteorologists → blame → Niño
Dozens of people were killed and Acapulco suffered billions of dollars in damage.
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Acapulco → kill → damage
Graciela Ramírez, a 49-year-old cook in Puerto Vallarta, said she worried that powerful storms were the new normal.
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storms → say → Vallarta
Her working-class neighborhood was badly damaged in earlier storms this year — with homes flooded and landslides wiping out streets.
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landslides → damage → streets
Now she and her family were packing their bags to go to a shelter to wait out Trudy.
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she → pack → Trudy
“Here we go again, she said.
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she → go → ?
“We’re left without work, living in fear that the hurricane might strike with full force and we could lose everything.”
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we → leave → everything
Linthicum reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Sánchez from Mexico City.
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Linthicum → report → City
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