the hurricane Agathathe first of the season on Mexico’s Pacific coast, made landfall Monday as a Category 2 cyclone in a tourist region that has been placed on medium alert, the US National Hurricane Center reported ( NHC).
Posted at 6:35 p.m.
Accompanied by winds of 165 km/h, Agathawhich moves at a speed of 13 km / h, is “the strongest hurricane” recorded in May on the Pacific coast of Mexico since 1949, according to the NHC.
The NHC has classified Agatha category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale which has 5 gradations.
“We expect thatAgatha weaken later in the night and that it dissipates over southeastern Mexico in the last hours of Tuesday,” the same source added.
Agatha made landfall around 4 p.m. on the coast of the state of Oaxaca (west) which attracts many surfers.
Some 5,240 tourists have been identified in the risk zone, between the resorts of Puerto Escondido and Huatulco, according to local authorities.
The Oaxaca government says it can house 26,800 people in 203 temporary shelters.
“The hostels are open. People are coming,” said Roberto Castillo of Huatulco Civil Protection.
“It is a threat to the state of Oaxaca,” said the local civil protection which declared the yellow alert (median).
Authorities have closed ports to shipping in these areas. Airlines have canceled flights since Sunday evening to Huatulco.
Waves as high as six meters are forecast for Oaxaca and the neighboring states of Guerrero and Chiapas, according to Mexico’s weather service (SMN).
The hurricane will cause heavy rains in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, and in the neighboring states of Guerrero and Tabasco (southeast), the SMN had indicated.
“Rainfall could cause landslides, increased river levels as well as flooding,” the SMN warned.
Mexico is hit by tropical cyclones on its Pacific and Atlantic coasts every year, usually between May and November.