Hurricane Max Is Riding The Heels Of Mexico’s Recent 8.1 Earthquake

Last week, while Hurricane Irma had everyone in the U.S. paralyzed with fear of an impending apocalypse, an 8.1 earthquake struck mainland Mexico, ravaging the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca and killing nearly 100 people.

“I’m working with some of the surfers from Oaxaca like Coco Nogales on collecting food water and blankets to bring to the damaged area,” reports Cesar Ramirez, one of the first people to ever surf Salina Cruz. “Luckily Salina Cruz, Puerto and Huatulco are fine, but 20 minutes from Salina Cruz is destroyed. Over 100 dead people now and over 500 have lost their homes.”

“The people in Puerto Escondido are fine to my understanding,” confirms Ruben Pina, a Mexican surf photographer now based in L.A. “The people south of Salina Cruz, especially in Juchitan and the Isthmus Tehuantepec, suffered major destruction to homes and buildings.”

While Puerto, Salina Cruz, and many a surfer’s preferred destination like the Punta Conejo Resort have survived unscathed, reports coming in from the hardest hit zones are bleak. Complicating the recovery effort, Hurricane Max made landfall on Thursday in the state of Guerrero. With sustained wind speeds of over 80 miles an hour, it’s currently sitting about 50 miles east-southeast of Acapulco and threatening earthquake damaged areas.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center has indicated that Max could bring “life-threatening flash floods and rainfall” to Guerrero and Oaxaca, especially around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, still in the very early stages of recovery. There is also major concern about outbreaks of water-borne illnesses. 

“Dengue and Chikungunya are endemic to the region, so we’re really concerned that people affected by the quake that are now living outside are at a higher risk,” said Eduardo Mendoza, the general manager of programs in Mexico for an aid organization Direct Relief.

“If we need to mobilize supplies for this hurricane, too, we’ll do it,” continued Mendoza. “We’re busy, but this is what we’re here for.”

And because bad things apparently come in threes, Mexico is keeping a sharp eye on Tropical Storm Norma hot on Max’s heels. Norma could potentially upgrade to a hurricane in the next day, with some forecasts predicting landfall near the tip of Baja, while others have it meandering westward into the Pacific.