Hurricane Jova Takes Aim at Southwestern Mexico

Hurricane Jova rapidly surged Monday to become a major category three storm, and was on course to make landfall in southwestern Mexico in the coming days, U.S. meteorologists said.

The Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a 09:00 GMT bulletin that Jova was now packing maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour.

It had strengthened to a category three storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, with additional strengthening expected ahead of making landfall as early as Tuesday.

Mexican authorities issued hurricane alerts for large swaths of the Pacific coastline, with the system some 430 kilometers from the busy port city of Manzanillo, in Colima state.

Officials here warned five states along the west coast to be on guard for possible landslides from heavy rain expected to be dumped by the ninth Pacific hurricane of the season.

"A dangerous storm surge is expected to produce significant coastal flooding near and to the east of where the center makes landfall," the NHC warned in its latest bulletin.

The surge, said the hurricane center, "will be accompanied by large and destructive waves" as well as torrential rainfall with accumulations of up to 38 centimeters in some areas.

Several major storms or hurricanes have buffeted Mexico's Pacific coast in recent months but most have remained offshore.

The season's first named storm, Arlene, left at least 16 people dead and drenched much of the country in July.

Tropical storms and hurricanes last year caused flooding and mudslides in Mexico that killed 125 people, left hundreds of thousands homeless and caused more than $4 billion in damage.