Hurricane John reaches Mexico as a severe Category 3 storm

By Fredy Garcia

PUERTO ESCONDIDO, Mexico (Reuters) – Hurricane John hit Mexico's southern Pacific coast late Monday as a major Category 3 storm, with authorities warning residents to brace themselves for potentially deadly storm surges and torrential rains.

The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour (193 km/h), made landfall south-southwest of Marquelia in the state of Guerrero around 9:15 p.m. Central Standard Time, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a statement.

Although the storm moved slowly, it rapidly intensified throughout the day, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador urged coastal residents to seek higher ground while the country's top civil protection agency declared a red alert in parts of Guerrero and neighboring Oaxaca state.

“Remember that life is the most important thing – material things can be replaced,” the president wrote on social media.

The storm could bring “exceptional” rainfall of more than 250 mm (10 inches) to parts of Guerrero and Oaxaca, the national water commission Conagua said. It forecast more than 150 mm (6 inches) of rain would fall in the southernmost state of Chiapas.

The Hurricane Center in Miami warned that the storm could bring life-threatening storm surges and flash floods before it moves inland over southern Mexico on Tuesday and quickly weakens over the region's high plains.

In the normally relaxed surfing resort of Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca, residents rushed to land boats and clear away beach chairs on Monday.

“We are very concerned,” said restaurant owner Paula Sanchez, adding that hurricanes in the region have become more severe in recent years.

As the storm approached, education officials ordered schools to close in parts of Oaxaca and Guerrero, and the state-run power company CFE said it would move convoys of workers to Oaxaca ahead of John's arrival.

A hurricane warning has been issued for areas from the famous beach resort of Acapulco, which is still recovering from the effects of last year's Hurricane Otis, to the tourist center of Huatulco in Oaxaca in the east.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for areas further east from Huatulco to the major port of Salina Cruz, where the largest domestic refinery of the Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex is located.

The NHC warned that heavy rains from John could cause “significant and potentially catastrophic, life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides” in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and southeastern Guerrero through Thursday.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Boyle, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Diego Ore and Kylie Madry in Mexico City and Fredy Garcia in Puerto Escondido; Writing by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Clarence Fernandez)