After reports that the village of Rebalse, Jalisco state, Mexico was flooded, a convoy of soldiers trying to reach the site is forced to turn back by muddy roads outside Cihuatlan on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2015. Sandra is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
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Hurricane Sandra, the strongest storm on record this late in the Pacific hurricane season, surged to Category 4 off the coast of Mexico on Thursday.
The agency may issue tropical storm or hurricane watches for portions of the area later on Thursday, it said.
The storm has rapidly grown since it formed Tuesday, but the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said it was expected to weaken before nearing land.
Sandra, the strongest hurricane in the eastern Pacific for this late in in the Pacific hurricane season, registered maximum sustained winds of 185 km per hour, according to the NHC.
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Sandra is centered about 340 miles (545 kilometers) south of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula and is moving north at 13 mph (20 kph).
