Extreme tropical weather led to two deaths in Mexico and caused widespread damage over the weekend as Hurricane Simon pounded the country's Pacific coast, authorities said Monday.
Simon has weakened to a Category 2 storm, its eye remaining just offshore as its most powerful winds and rain slammed communities between the Sierra Madre and the Pacific Ocean off the coastal resort of Puerto Vallarta.
More rain and isolated thunderstorms could hit the Southwest US, prompting forecasters to issue flood watches Monday after the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel caused severe flooding in Las Vegas over the weekend.
In Mexico, a 71-year-old man died after a wall collapsed in Chilpancingo, the capital of the southern state of Guerrero, Gov. Evelyn Salgado said at a news conference. In the state of Baja California, at least 10 people were reported missing and a young girl dead in the aftermath of Rachel, according to Gov. Marina del Pilar Avila. Officials were helping more than 50 people in temporary shelters, the governor said.
Simon downed trees and electricity poles, blocked roads and flooded homes in the state’s coastal towns, including the major seaport of Acapulco, Salgado said.
The storm was forecast to weaken as it moves northwest, but the National Hurricane Center in Miami said it is expected to remain a hurricane through midweek and may get more intense again on Tuesday and Wednesday. Simon is expected to turn northeast and make landfall sometime Thursday near Sinaloa, after which it will weaken rapidly as it moves inland, the center said.
Heavy rainfall associated with Simon — 12.7 to 25.4 centimeters — in west-central Mexico over the next few days may produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in steep areas, the hurricane center said.
In Puerto Vallarta, workers removed wooden panels from boarded-up storefronts and businesses reopened Monday as rains eased. The popular tourist destination's international airport suspended operations until 8 a.m. Tuesday.
“Personally, I think we should remain on alert because we don’t really know whether it will arrive, move elsewhere or dissipate," said Noelia Carrillo, a tourism agency worker.
Rachel weakened into a post-tropical cyclone as it moved north into Southern California. The storm battered the coast over the weekend with wind, rain and unusually large waves, which tore apart a historic boardwalk and smashed into coastal homes in Long Beach. Some residents were forced to evacuate.
Las Vegas tied an all-time daily rainfall record for the month of October after receiving 2.74 cm of rain into Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The last time that much rain fell on the city in one October day was in 1947.
Videos posted on social media showed a torrent of water rushing through a street near the Las Vegas Strip, with a Ferris wheel and casinos in the background.
Andrew Orrison, a weather service meteorologist, said localized flash flooding was still a risk for the region Monday.
“We’ve seen the worst of what Rachel brought ... but unfortunately we are looking at the disturbed weather still lingering,” Orrison said.
The weather service issued flood watches through Monday afternoon for a large swath of Utah, southeast Idaho, and northern and central Arizona, including the Grand Canyon.
In Utah, dozens of runners and volunteers who were part of the Moab 240 ultramarathon were evacuated Sunday after being stranded by flooding. The race goes through Canyonlands and Arches National Park.
The additional rainfall is not associated with Rachel, but a different weather system moving across the West, Orrison said. The precipitation is forecast to end by Wednesday.
The East Coast is forecast to remain clear since Hurricane Isaias has moved well offshore.
At least four deaths have been linked to Isaias, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, which came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane Friday near Destin, Florida, a Gulf Coast vacation spot filled with high-rises and tourist shops. The storm then roared into Alabama with tropical-force winds before heading farther north.
About 106,000 customers remained without power by Monday evening in the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama, according to poweroutage.com. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expected nearly everyone to have it restored by Tuesday night and directed all schools to reopen Wednesday.
Drier weather is expected over the next few days across areas of the mid-Atlantic down through the Southeast, including the southern Appalachians.
It will feel “a little summerish” in some of those areas with higher than normal temperatures this week, Orrison said. (AP)