By Diego Oré and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez
MEXICO CITY, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Hurricane Trudy weakened on Friday but could regain strength in the coming hours, meteorologists warned, as the storm approached Mexico’s western coast, packing winds of up to 140 km per hour (85 mph).
Further strengthening is forecast before Trudy nears Jalisco and Colima states in central-western Mexico late on Saturday as a life-threatening major hurricane, Mexican authorities and the US-based National Hurricane Center said.
The center of Trudy will approach the coast of southwestern and west-central Mexico on Saturday and pass near the coast Saturday night into Sunday, the NHC said in its latest advisory.
“Trudy will remain a dangerous hurricane as it moves near Mexico’s central-western coast this weekend, bringing strong winds, rough seas, and torrential rain,” said private forecaster AccuWeather.
Earlier, Trudy had reached Category 3 and was expected to intensify to a Category 4 hurricane.
Any change in its path closer to shore will increase the severity of its impact, the head of Mexico’s weather agency, Fabian Vazquez, said at a press conference.
“Everyone in this region needs to be very careful and stay alert over the weekend,” he added.
Mexico’s civil protection agency asked residents to prepare by securing doors and windows, and removing objects that could be thrown around by the strong winds.
In the coastal resort city of Acapulco, fishermen pulled their boats ashore after authorities closed some fishing and tourist ports to small vessels.
The storm is expected to produce up to 15 inches (38 cm) of rain in the states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco, increasing the risk of life-threatening flooding and landslides, according to the NHC.
Mexico’s Pacific coast has already been battered in recent weeks by storms that left several dead and caused severe flooding.
Tropical Storm Simon continues to weaken farther northwest offshore, after dropping heavy rain along the coast earlier as a hurricane.
Last week, Tropical Storm Rachel hit the Baja California peninsula, damaging some 1,500 homes.
(Reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Diego Ore, Additional reporting by Raul Cortes and Iñigo Alexander; Editing by Toby Chopra and Rosalba O’Brien)
