(CNN) – Cities along Mexico’s southwestern coast grapple with torrential rains, flooding and landslides after Tropical Storm John strengthened again into a category 1 hurricane Thursday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
John is considered a “zombie” storm, a term that refers to systems that dissipate before strengthening again into a storm. After hitting Mexico as a deadly Category 3 hurricane on Monday night, it dissipated before returning as a hurricane, hitting Mexico’s Pacific coast. Even after initially dissipating, the remnants of the storm continued to move along the coast, bringing continuous rain.
In the resort city of Acapulco, which has yet to fully recover from the destruction of Hurricane Otis last year, several neighborhoods were flooded and residents in at-risk areas were told to evacuate to temporary shelters. Some parts of the city have received more than 500mm of rain this week, and 431mm in the last 24 hours.
A video posted on social media shows a taxi swept away by raging flood waters with people still inside. The car eventually stopped and authorities took the passengers to safety.
Emergency workers have been deployed to the city with rafts and boats to rescue those trapped by rising waters, said Guerrero Gov. Evelyn Salgado Pineda.
Authorities suspended operations at the Acapulco airport and schools across the state were ordered closed until further notice.
In rural towns around Acapulco, residents have reported temporary power outages due to rain. Some markets have closed, preventing people from buying essential supplies to weather the storm.
“I hope it doesn’t last long because there won’t be enough food,” one resident told CNN.
Hurricane John is expected to bring “very heavy to extraordinary” amounts of rain, strong winds and high waves to the southwestern part of the country, Mexico’s National Water Commission said in a statement Thursday.
Along the municipality of Benito Juárez in Guerrero, a river began to overflow a section of its bank, with water levels almost reaching the height of a bridge above it. Residents fear it could flood parts of the city of San Jerónimo. Authorities are urging people to avoid getting close to the river bank and bridge.
Hurricane John was located about 120 km west of Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, at noon ET on Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of 120 km/h.
The storm is expected to drop between 254 mm and 508 mm of rain in the states of Guerrero and Michoacán through Friday, and up to 125 mm in Colima and western Oaxaca.
Models agree that steady weakening will begin on Friday, and the system will become a friday night depressionaccording to the National Hurricane Center.
