MEXICO CITY, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Hurricane Erick was downgraded to a Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of storm intensity as it dumped rain on southern Mexico Thursday, causing floods, damage to homes, power outages and roadblocks in parts of Oaxaca and Guerrero states.
According to the National Meteorological Service (SMN), the fifth tropical cyclone of the 2025 season in the Pacific Ocean made landfall at 5:30 a.m. local time as a Category 3 hurricane in the town of Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, with sustained winds of 205 km per hour and gusts of up to 250 km per hour.
By 9:15 a.m., the center of the storm was approximately 50 km north-northwest of Punta Maldonado, Guerrero, with maximum sustained winds of 140 km per hour and gusts of up to 165 km per hour, while moving northwest at a speed of 19 km per hour.
Despite losing steam, Erick still threatens south Mexico with torrential rains, and heavy rainfall in parts of Chiapas (southeast), southern Veracruz (east), and southern Puebla (center), the weather service said.
Gusts of up to 160 km per hour and waves of up to five meters high were expected to hit the states' coastal areas.
Mexico's National Coordinator of Civil Protection, Laura Velazquez, said at the government's daily morning press conference that no fatalities have been reported so far.
However, she added, the storm has already caused significant damage in at least 14 towns in Oaxaca, including inundating a hospital run by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in Huatulco, overflowing rivers in Ixtepec, and washing away roads, downing trees and knocking out power.
Oaxaca Governor Salomon Jara announced that as a preventive measure, commercial and private flights were suspended at the airports of Huatulco and Puerto Escondido, both tourism destinations located on the coastal strip hardest hit by the hurricane.
As it continues its northwestward trajectory, Erick poses a risk to mountainous and coastal areas of southern Mexico, so authorities remain on alert.
