Erick makes landfall as a Category 3 hurricane, the strongest to hit Mexico so early in the year
Hurricane Erick slammed into Mexico's Oaxaca state as a dangerous Category 3 storm Thursday morning, unleashing powerful winds at the coast while spreading heavy rain over the region.
The hurricane made landfall about 20 miles east of Punta Maldonado, Mexico, just after 6 a.m. CDT Thursday, according to NOAA's National Hurricane Center. Winds of 125 mph were roaring around its center at landfall.
The storm came ashore about 100 miles east of Acapulco, the city devastated by Hurricane Otis in October 2023.
Erick is the first major hurricane – Category 3 or greater – on record to hit Mexico before July. The hurricane maxed out as a ferocious Category 4 storm with 145 mph winds just off the coast in the earliest hours of Thursday morning.
It underwent extreme rapid intensification from Tuesday night into Wednesday night, strengthening from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in just 24 hours. Rapid intensification is becoming more frequent in a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution.
Erick will deteriorate quickly as it tracks through Mexico's steep mountains Thursday and is should dissipate by early Friday. It was already a Category 1 hurricane a few hours after landfall. Despite that, it will drop a troubling amount of rain in a short period that could cause dangerous flooding.
The East Pacific hurricane season has been very busy since it began in mid-May. Erick is already the fifth named storm of the season – storms are named when they reach at least tropical storm-strength – and the second hurricane. The basin doesn't typically have its second hurricane until mid-July, according to NOAA.
The Atlantic hurricane season is also underway, but has yet to churn out its first named storm and there's little prospect for it in the next few days.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a video message Wednesday night that all activities in the region in Erick's path were suspended and she urged people to stay in their homes or to move to shelters if they lived in low-lying areas, the Associated Press reported.
Acapulco's port closed Tuesday evening. Guerrero state Gov. Evelyn Salgado said all movement in Acapulco and other beach communities was to be suspended at 8 p.m. Wednesday in a post on X, and schools across the state were to remain closed through Thursday.
Salgado said 582 shelters were set to receive people who might evacuate their homes across Guerrero.
Laura Velázquez, Mexico's national civil defense coordinator, said Erick was forecast to bring 'torrential' rains to Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas states, according to the AP. The mountainous region along the southern coast is especially prone to mudslides with numerous rivers at risk of flooding.
Nearly 16 inches of rain could fall through the end of the week in some portions of Guerrero's mountainous terrain, according to the NHC. This could trigger life-threatening flooding or mudslides. Up to 8 inches of rain is possible in the same timeframe for coastal areas of Oaxaca and Guerrero.
Acapulco could record up to 6 inches of rain from Erick, but will not face the hurricane's most powerful winds. Tropical storm-force gusts up to 45 mph are possible in the area Thursday.
In Acapulco on Wednesday, there was a strong presence of National Guard and police in the streets, but most visible were trucks from the national power company, the AP reported. Crews worked to clear drainage canals and brush.
The memory of Hurricane Otis haunted some residents as they prepared for Erick. Otis underwent some of the most extreme rapid intensification on record and strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane just before landfall.
Carlos Ozuna Romero, 51, lost his restaurant at the edge of an Acapulco beach when Otis slammed the resort with devastating winds, he told the AP. On Wednesday, he directed workers storing tables and chairs.
'Authorities' warnings fill us with fear and obviously make us remember everything we've already been through,' Ozuna Romero said in reference to Otis.
CNN Meteorologist Monica Garrett contributed to this report.
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