At a Monday news briefing, Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado confirmed that a 71-year-old man died during Hurricane Simon after a retaining wall collapsed under the weight of intense precipitation. According to the Guerrero-based news agency IRZA, the man, identified by his family as Albino Moreno Jimenez, was feeding his animals on the western outskirts of Chilpancingo when the wall came down on him.
A second death was announced later in the day in Baja California, where Governor Marina del Pilar said a young girl had died from the effects of what was once Hurricane Rachel, which peaked in early October as a Category 3 storm. At least 10 more people remain missing in the state: eight in the Pacific coast city of Ensenada and two in the fishing town of San Felipe on the Gulf of California. The figures remain preliminary, with the local newspaper La Jornada reporting a higher toll of two dead in Baja California and 11 missing.
Rachel made landfall as a post-tropical cyclone, and its remnants have travelled north through southern California in the southwestern United States. Hurricane Simon, meanwhile, has churned off the coast since the weekend. By late Monday morning it had weakened from a powerful Category 4 storm to Category 2, with maximum sustained winds of about 155km/h (100mph), according to the US National Hurricane Center. Its centre was about 115km west-southwest of Cabo Corrientes in the state of Jalisco, drifting west at 3km/h.
Forecasters predict Simon could make landfall on Thursday or Friday. Hurricane warnings remain in effect for western Mexico, which is vulnerable to landslides and deadly surf conditions. Officials have called on residents to exercise caution amid downed trees, high winds and floodwaters. The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported the death of a cliff diver, Juan Patines, who was killed in Mazatlan, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, after jumping into the sea on Saturday night, with heavy surf hampering his return to shore.