Orleen becomes a “major hurricane” near the coast of Mexico

The US National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Orlin “turned into a major Category 3 hurricane” Sunday morning as it approached Mexico’s Pacific coast, which is expected to arrive in the coming days.

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The Miami-based NHC said in its latest posting at 0600 GMT that it had “become a major hurricane” with strong winds of 185 kilometers per hour.

“Orlen was intensified into a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale,” which has 5, the National Water Commission (Conagua) noted in a press release. The hurricane is located 205 kilometers from Playa Perola in the state of Jalisco (west) where it caused heavy rain.

It is moving north at 7 km/h and “according to the forecast trajectory, the center of Orlin should pass near or above the Marias Islands on Sunday night or Monday morning and reach the coast of mainland Mexico” on the same day, the NHC detailed.

The Office of Civil Protection said on Twitter that the hurricane brought “heavy rain” from the south to the north of the Mexican coast accompanied by “high winds and heavy inflation”, prompting residents of vulnerable areas to seek temporary shelters.

Meanwhile, the Navy closed ports in the states of Nayarit and Jalisco.

Mexico’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts are hit by hurricanes every year, usually between May and November. In October 1997, more than 200 people died during the passage of Paulina on the Pacific coast.