Hurricane Lidia, a Category 2 Storm, Moves Inland in Mexico, Killing 1

Hurricane Lidia remained deadly even as it was downgraded to a Category 2 storm on Tuesday evening, killing at least one person as it moved inland from the west coast of Mexico and spreading life-threatening winds and heavy rains that could cause flooding and mudslides, forecasters warned.

Lidia was about 30 miles east of the resort town of Puerto Vallarta, in the state of Jalisco, at 8 p.m., hours after it made landfall nearby as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane. Its sustained winds reached 105 miles per hour, with stronger gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Officials in the neighboring state of Nayarit said that one man had died in the town of Punta Mita after strong winds made a tree fall on the pickup truck that he was driving.

Schools were suspended on Wednesday in 23 municipalities in Jalisco, the state’s Education Ministry said. The state opened 23 temporary shelters, said the governor, Enrique Alfaro. In Nayarit, military and national guards, aircraft and land vehicles were deployed for rescues. Officials were also carefully watching water levels at rivers, including Rio Ameca, one of Mexico’s largest and deepest.

“I had never seen and felt a hurricane like this,” said Martha Ramírez, 60, a journalist in Puerto Vallarta who took refuge in the city hall, where the power was out and the internet connection was spotty.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico earlier called on residents in the affected regions to “take refuge” and said on social media that the armed forces and civil protection authorities were present there.

Lidia has disrupted tourism in resorts on the Pacific coastline. It forced businesses to close in Puerto Vallarta, where beaches were vacated, tourists sheltered in their hotels, the airport shut down and hospitals braced for an influx of patients. Residents living near rivers, streams or mountainous areas were asked to go to the government-run shelters, said a spokeswoman for Jalisco’s state government, Susana Rodríguez Mejía.

“We can’t go and control nature, but what we can do is protect ourselves,” Jesús Guillermo Carmona Jiménez, the president of the Hotel and Motel Association of Bahía de Banderas, said in an interview. He said that travelers at Vallarta Gardens, a hotel in the beachside city, had been offered free food and accommodation during the storm.

Puerto Vallarta was last hit by Hurricane Nora in August 2021, which caused the Cuale River to overflow, destroying a bridge and killing at least three people.

Exact population counts for the regions that might be affected by Lidia were not available.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the Pacific Coast of west-central Mexico from Manzanillo to San Blas, a tropical storm warning from Punta San Telmo to Manzanillo. Warnings were discontinued for other areas in Mexico.

Lidia is expected to produce four to eight inches of rain — and in some areas up to 12 inches — through Wednesday across the state of Nayarit, southern portions of the state of Sinaloa and coastal portions of the state of Jalisco, the Hurricane Center said.

These rains are likely to produce flash and urban flooding, and mudslides are possible in areas of higher terrain near the coast. A “dangerous storm surge” is expected to cause significant coastal flooding, forecasters said.

“The rains will continue in the next 12 hours, they will intensify,” said Jerusalén Ceja García, a meteorologist at the Autonomous University of Nayarit, during a state council meeting on Tuesday.

Swells from Lidia will affect the west coast of Mexico and the Baja California peninsula over the next few days. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

Another hurricane made landfall in Nayarit in late October last year. That storm, Hurricane Roslyn, was a Category 4 storm that contributed to the deaths of four people, according to the Hurricane Center.

“That was a much more significant system,” Alex DaSilva, a meteorologist with AccuWeather, said. “While we don’t expect it to be of that strength, we are always concerned about the flooding downpours.”

Areas inland on the west coast of Mexico have mountainous terrain, meaning that a lot of rain there can lead to mudslides, washouts and other flooding issues, he said.

Livia Albeck-Ripka, John Yoon, Johnny Diaz, Rebecca Carballo and Claire Moses also contributed reporting.