Hurricane John ravaged Mexico’s Guerrero state this week before weakening into a tropical storm, but it is again threatening the country’s Pacific Coast, which has been drenched by the storm’s rains in recent days and can expect to receive even more, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Late Thursday, John was stalled off the coast as a Category 1 hurricane, and was expected to drop an additional 10-20 inches of rain on parts of the country through Friday. Forecasters warned it could cause “catastrophic life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides” in Guerrero and nearby Michoacán state.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm may grow stronger overnight, but that its location so near to the coast may keep it from doing so. The storm’s center was expected to reach the coast, where hurricane conditions were “imminent,” Thursday night, the hurricane center said.

Mexico’s meteorological service also said landslides, flooding and overflowing rivers were expected in Michoacán and Colima as John approached, and that at least nine other states would also be hit with heavy rains.

Guerrero state Gov. Evelyn Salgado said in a post Thursday morning on the social media platform X that Guerrero and Michoacán should be prepared for the hurricane and asked the public to follow official guidance. “Your safety is what is most important,” the governor said.

The governor posted images of inundated roadways in Acapulco, in Guerrero, and of members of the military assisting residents with evacuations.

Extent of devastation

State authorities said at least 4,000 homes in Acapulco were in peril. The popular coastal resort sustained major damage in 2023 from Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 storm that claimed the lives of more than 50 people.

Hurricane John wreaked havoc in another part of Guerrero early this week, striking land Monday with maximum sustained winds of about 120 miles per hour.

The hurricane unleashed flash floods and caused mudslides that killed at least five people, including a 10-year-old and his mother, who were trapped by a landslide in their home in the municipality of Tlacoachistlahuaca.

By Tuesday morning, the storm had dumped more than 10 inches of rain on parts of Guerrero and Oaxaca, two of the country’s poorest states, according to local authorities.

Tens of thousands of people had lost power and parts of the coast were left covered in fallen trees, according to Reuters. The storm also shut down airports and halted operations at a major cargo port this week. To prevent people from being electrocuted, authorities also cut the power of an entire district in Acapulco, leaving 1,170 users without electricity.

Scientists say the category rating of a storm can fail to fully capture how destructive it is. A hurricane’s rating on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which runs from 1 to 5, is based only on its maximum sustained wind speed, not on the rain, storm surges or tornadoes it produces.

John is the 10th named storm to form in the Eastern Pacific in 2024, and it is moving through the region at the same time as a powerful Atlantic storm, Hurricane Helene, is churning in the Gulf of Mexico on its way to a predicted landfall in Florida on Thursday.

The two storms are related in a way — they both originated from the same parent system, called the central American gyre, and it is a broad, widespread area of storms across Central America that has spun up both Helene and John. This same broad quality of the storm is what is making Helene a large hurricane as it spins toward Florida.

A recent study showed that rapid intensification, as in the case of John, is now twice as likely, at least for Atlantic hurricanes, partially because of human-caused climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels.