Travelers have been put on notice as Hurricane Willa has grown into an “extremely dangerous” near-Category 5 storm that is expected to make landfall along Mexico‘s western coast by Wednesday.
According to The Associated Press, the hurricane was measured with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour and was expected to make landfall between Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, with hurricane warnings posted between San Blas and Mazatlan.
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The United States National Hurricane Center said Willa could produce life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and rainfall of up to 18 inches in some areas of southwestern and west-central Mexico starting Tuesday.
According to FlightAware.com, the storm has not caused any flight delays or cancellations between the United States and Mexico yet, but airlines serving the region and airports in the storm’s trajectory are preparing for the impact.
Carriers have not yet started issuing travel waivers for potentially impacted regions.
As for cruise passengers, Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Bliss announced changes to its current sailing, shifting north from Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas in favor of San Francisco, San Diego and Ensenada.
Cruise Critic is also reporting Holland America’s Eurodam has changed its October 21 sailing to include San Francisco, San Pedro, Catalina Island and Ensenada instead of the originally scheduled Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta stops.
Other cruise lines such as Princess and Disney could also post itinerary changes.
As if the threat of Hurricane Willa wasn’t enough, Tropical Storm Vicente can be found further south and could potentially bring heavy rainfall and flooding to parts of southern and southwestern Mexico.
The two storms will then move inland and could bring southern and central Texas as much as four inches of rain this week, with effects also possibly felt in Louisiana and Mississippi.