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Hurricane Simon slightly modified its trajectory on Sunday, and the latest forecast indicated that it will pass close to the Mexican coast without reducing the risks of heavy rain and severe winds.
The cyclone is moving at a dangerously slow pace as a category 4 out of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The effects tend to be more severe the longer it stays in one place.
An AFP team is in Puerto Vallarta, a tourist jewel that will be hit by the effects of the hurricane. It was cloudy early in the day, with large clouds over the sea and mountains and light rain.
Businesses protected windows and doors with planks, and some spray-painted messages like "Simon says: 'everything will be okay'", in reference to the popular children's game where kids follow instructions, or "Simon, be brief, peaceful" next to a drawing of a shark and happy faces.
A couple strolls along the boardwalk, guarded by soldiers. An occasional runner also took the opportunity to leave home.
Cruz Castillo, a 60-year-old Vallarta resident, went out "for a walk to see" how the situation was. "We are worried," he said. "We are still watching how this is going to approach."
Vicente García, a 48-year-old tourist from California, said he felt calm. "We expected a bigger storm yesterday, so we stayed inside, but I'm glad it wasn't like that," he indicated. "We are leaving tomorrow."
Meteorological reports had predicted an impact around local noon (18h00 GMT), but data obtained by hurricane hunter aircraft in the early morning indicated that the center of the cyclone will now arrive six hours later about 15 km from the coast of the state of Jalisco, moving in parallel without the core necessarily impacting the continental portion of the country.
But "all of the cyclone's cloud bands or the intense part of the cyclone will still be affecting" coastal towns, explained the director of Mexico's meteorological service, Fabián Vázquez, to the AFP.
"We are going to have very severe effects, especially wind on the coast" with waves of up to nine meters and extraordinary rainfall, he added.
- Slow progress -
The latest report from the United States hurricane center places Simon with sustained winds of 230 km/h at a speed of barely 11 km/h.
Since becoming a hurricane, Simon had barely exceeded 10 km/h. In contrast, Tropical Storm Rachel approached northern Mexico on Saturday at about 35 km/h.
It has remained "semi-stationary" off the Mexican coast, explained Jalisco Civil Protection meteorologist Boris Comi. This means it could "be generating more rain for a longer time," which "puts the population at greater risk."
Reaching land also helps to weaken the phenomenon. Puerto Vallarta, for example, is favored by its location in a bay and the presence of mountains that attenuate the force of the cyclones.
But by moving parallel to the coast, it facilitates "it remaining at a slightly more intense category," added Vázquez.
On Saturday, the Mexican Navy evacuated about a hundred people by boat from coastal towns threatened by Simon. They were taken to Puerto Vallarta, where most have relatives with whom to take shelter, and others will go to one of the five shelters set up in this city, which had already received 95 people by Saturday.
Elena Glumas, 63, arrived with her dogs from the town of Yelapa.
"Three years ago we lost everything, now well, I say, life comes first," she stated upon stepping off the ferry. She is referring to Hurricane Lidia, which battered her town with torrential rain in 2023.
[Publicidad]