Hurricane Willa is set to slam into Mexico’s Pacific coast today, bringing “extremely dangerous” 145mph winds, torrential rain and a potentially life-threatening storm surge.
Authorities were rushing to evacuate low-lying areas and set up shelters with the storm expected to make landfall on Tuesday afternoon.
Willa briefly reached Category 5 strength on Monday but has slightly weakened to Category 4.
However, the US National Hurricane Center warned that it still was likely to bring a "life-threatening storm surge, wind and rainfall" to parts of west-central and southwestern Mexico.
Workers taped up windows in hotels and officials ordered schools to close in a low-lying region where towns sit amid farmland tucked between the sea and lagoons.
A decree of "extraordinary emergency" was issued for 19 municipalities in Nayarit and Sinaloa states, the federal Interior Department announced.
Officials said 7,000 to 8,000 people were being evacuated from low-lying areas, mostly in Sinaloa state.
The hurricane was expected to first pass over or near the Islas Marias, a group of islands about 60 miles offshore that include a nature preserve and a prison.
Forecasters said Willa would then blow ashore somewhere along a 140-mile stretch of coastline from the resort city of Mazatlan to San Blas.
Enrique Moreno, mayor of Escuinapa, a municipality of about 60,000 people lying on Willa's potential track, said officials were trying to evacuate everybody in the seaside village of Teacapan. He estimated 3,000 people were affected but he expected some would try to stay.
"The people don't want to evacuate, but it's for their security," he said.
About 60 miles up the coast in Mazatlan, with a metropolitan-area population of about 500,000, Mayor Jose Joel Boucieguez said officials prepared shelters and were closely monitoring low-lying areas. Mazatlan is a popular vacation spot and home to a large number of American and Canadian expatriates.
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The US hurricane center warned that Willa could bring 6 to 12 inches of rain - with up to 18 inches in some places - to parts of Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa states, with flash flooding and landslides possible in mountainous areas.
US Storm season 2018
Further south, a weakening Tropical Storm Vicente was expected to dissipate soon, but it still caused heavy rainfall that caused dangerous flooding in southern and southwestern Mexico.
Officials in Oaxaca state said seven adults and five children had lost their lives in drownings or mudslides.
