Hurricane Jova has brought 100 mph winds to Mexico’s Pacific coast together with high waves, heavy rain and flooding.
Jova was about 60 miles west of the port city of Manzanillo at 3am GMT today, the US National Hurricane Centre.
It was nearing landfall as a Category two hurricane threatening one of the country’s busiest cargo ports and tourist resorts.
The Miami-based hurricane centre said the centre of Jova would cross the Mexican coast on a stretch of land dotted with beaches south of the resort of Puerto Vallarta.
People boarded up shops in Puerto Vallarta as dark clouds gathered for most of the day. A few restaurants remained open last night and some people were still out on the streets in the drizzle but the port was closed.
Earlier yesterday, workers scrambled to fill and stack sandbags to protect professional beach volleyball courts on Puerto Vallarta’s coast, where events from the Panamerican Games are due to be staged later this week.
Jova could produce up to 12 inches of rainfall over four states, with isolated rainfall of up to 20 inches, the hurricane centre said.