Off the southwestern coast of Mexico, Hurricane Polo arrived Tuesday as one of the most powerful storms the Pacific has produced in years — a Category 5 system with 180-mile-per-hour winds, the third of its kind this season alone. Though forecasters believed it would spare the coast a direct strike, the storm's proximity to Guerrero and Michoacán was enough to close ports, silence schools, and send fishing boats ashore. Nature rarely requires a direct hit to remind us of our vulnerability; sometimes the nearness of catastrophe is its own instruction.
Category 5 Hurricane Polo poses 'extremely dangerous' threat to Mexico's Pacific coast
Potential life-threatening flooding, mudslides, and dangerous ocean conditions threaten residents and fishermen along Mexico's Pacific coast.