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Mexico's Pacific coast is reeling from a one-two punch of tropical weather. Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel have killed at least five people, left five more missing, and forced helicopter rescues across the country's southern states, authorities said on Monday, October 12. The twin systems downed trees and power poles, blocked highways, and swelled rivers into life-threatening floods — and Simon, though weakening, is not finished: it is forecast to swing back toward Mexico's west-central coast by Wednesday or Thursday.
The toll so far
According to reports from AFP and the daily presidential press conference, Simon claimed the life of a 71-year-old man who died when a retaining wall collapsed beside his home in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, Governor Evelyn Salgado confirmed. The storm uprooted trees and electricity poles and flooded homes in Guerrero, including the port city of Acapulco. Tropical Storm Rachel is blamed for four deaths in Baja California — one family, including two children, whose bodies were found on the outskirts of Ensenada, the state prosecutor's office reported. Five more people remain missing, while security forces used helicopters to rescue 32 people from isolated communities, and Baja California's governor said more than 50 people were being helped in temporary shelters.
Simon's strange, dangerous path
Simon peaked as a Category 4 hurricane on Saturday, then weakened to Category 2 with 110 mph (175 kph) winds by Monday morning, hovering about 55 miles west-southwest of Cabo Corrientes in Jalisco. It crawled northwest at just 3 mph — a slow, rain-loaded pace. Monday was paradoxical: Simon did not make landfall, and in Puerto Vallarta, which had braced for the worst, an AFP team observed clear skies and a rainbow as residents jogged the seafront — even as waves of up to 5 metres (16 feet) crashed ashore and a rain alert stayed in force. The US National Hurricane Center warns the storm's heavy rainfall could still produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides across west-central Mexico in the coming days, with isolated storm totals reaching 30 inches (76 cm) in parts of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco. Mexico's civil protection coordinator, Laura Velazquez, said the latest official forecast has Simon hitting Mazatlan in Sinaloa as a Category 1 hurricane.
El Nino's fingerprints
Meteorologists point to the El Nino phenomenon — rising water temperatures in the Pacific — as the engine behind this season's more intense hurricanes in the region. Rachel's remnants, meanwhile, flooded communities across the US Southwest, a reminder that these systems' damage spreads far beyond landfall. Flooding and landslides have already hit communities near rivers and streams in Michoacan and Colima, and riverside towns remain on evacuation alert. Follow Global Insight for continuing coverage of Hurricane Simon's path.