Talk:Hurricane Willa/GAN Prep

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Preparations
The Government of Mexico issued a hurricane watch on October 21 at 15:00 UTC for the western coast of Mexico from San Blas to Mazatlán, and a tropical storm watch from Playa Perula to San Blas. A tropical storm watch was issued for Mazatlan to Bahia Tempehuaya at 21:00 UTC. The hurricane watch and tropical storm watches were replaced with warnings at 03:00 UTC on October 22. All warnings were discontinued at 06:00 UTC on October 24, after Willa weakened to a tropical storm over Durango.

Various weather-related alerts were issued as Willa approached Mexico's Pacific coast. Red alerts, indicative of the maximum level of danger, were issued for portions of Nayarit and Sinaloa in Willa's direct path. In Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco and central Sinaloa, orange alerts were issued due to high danger. A majority of Chihuahua was under a yellow alert, meaning moderate danger, due to the threat of heavy rainfall. A green alert, signaling minimal danger, was issued for Baja California Sur as a precautionary measure due to waves along the coast. The Mexican Secretariat of the Navy activated the Prevention Phase of the Marine Plan in the Mexican states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán. Small vessels were restricted in the ports of Comondú, La Paz, and Los Cabos as well as in the Gulf of California and Sea of Cortez.

Approximately 200,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Nayarit and Sinaloa. About 40,000 of those people utilized 2,900 shelters, assisted by the Mexican Army, Navy, and emergency crews. Businesses and industries in the storm's path closed. Mazatlán International Airport closed during the storm, as did nearby hotels. Emergency authorities evicted over 4,250 people in costal cities from their homes and established 58 shelters before the storm hit. In Jalisco, 2,500 people were evacuated ahead of Willa and 23 temporary shelters were established. At least 6,000 people were evacuated from Escuinapa due to the proximity of Willa. Fonden, Mexico's natural disaster relief agency, allocated 90 tonnes of food for affected people in advance of Willa's landfall.

Vicente and Willa together forced the Norwegian Bliss cruise ship to divert to San Diego, California on October 23. All economic activity and public transportation were suspended in Sinaloa as a precaution. Roads and businesses were closed in Nayarit, with officials requesting that citizens remain in their homes.

Mexico
The eye of Hurricane Willa crossed over two of the offshore Islas Marías, producing wind gusts of 179 km/h (112 mph), and average sustained winds of 142 km/h (89 mph) for a 15 minute period; the latter value equated to 1 minute sustained winds of around 160 km/h (100 mph). On the Mexican mainland, storm chasers from iCyclone.com reported a minimum pressure of 968 mbar where Willa's eye moved ashore, suggesting a landfall intensity of 185 km/h (115 mph). Willa produced hurricane-force wind gusts in the immediate vicinity of where it moved ashore, as well as high waves and a significant storm surge. The storm also dropped heavy rainfall in six Mexican states – Colima, Durango, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Sinaloa. Willa dropped heavy rainfall in western Mexico, peaking at 15.39 in in San Andrés Milpillas in northern Nayarit. Cihuatlán in western Jalisco reported 13.17 in of rainfall.

The storm left 96,200 people without power in four states: Sinaloa, where it moved ashore, as well as Nayarit, Durango, and Michoacán.

Sinaloa
Hurricane Willa's landfall in Sinaloa left two municipalities isolated – Escuinapa and Rosario. High winds damaged homes and knocked down trees, which blocked roads. In Escuinapa, the storm damaged the hospital and the municipal water system, and preliminary damage was confirmed at MX$350 million (US$17.9 million). The Trébol II community dam was damaged as a result of floodwaters from Willa. Willa severely damaged 72 schools in Escuinapa and 19 in Rosario. Power lines were knocked down along a road to Tecapan, causing the entire town to lose power. In El Rosario, the Baluarte River rapidly rose after at least 188 mm of rain fell, sweeping away stone extraction machinery and transportation trucks. The destruction of infrastructure left multiple communities in El Rosario without drinking water and at least 53 km of unusable roads. The river flood also damaged approximately 3,000 ha of crops in Rosario. In Mazatlan, rockslides and flooding of the Camarón lagoon occurred. Approximately 17,000 ha of crops were damaged in the municipalities of Ahome, El Fuerte, Sinaloa de Leyva, Angostura, Salvador Alvarado, Navolato, and Culiacán.

Nayarit
In the state of Nayarit, Willa killed four people – three drowned along the San Pedro River, and the other was discovered by fishermen. Across the state, the hurricane displaced more than 10,000 people. A hydro-agricultural system in northern Nayarit was damaged, resulting in MX$700 million (US$35.7 million) in losses. Total damage in the state was estimated at MX$10 billion (US$510 million). Heavy rainfall killed two more people in Nogales, Sonora, where floods also swept away cars and entered homes and businesses.

Elsewhere
In Morelia, damage from Willa was estimated at MX$35 million (US$1.79 million), while losses in Lerdo, Durango reached about MX$140 million (US$7.14 million).

Due to the unsettled weather produced by Willa and the nearby Tropical Storm Vicente, numerous oil tankers were unable to unload fuel at ports in Manzanillo and Tuxpan. Combined with the closure of a major pipeline that transports petroleum to Guadalajara, this caused a fuel shortage in Jalisco, with some 500 gas stations being affected.

In Atapaneo, Willa caused a train derailment that injured two people.

United States
On October 24, the remnants of Hurricane Willa brought heavy rainfall and thunderstorms to Texas and Louisiana. Rainfall reached 4.9 in at the Scholes International Airport at Galveston. The area had already been saturated from excessive rainfall within the past month. A Flash Flood Warning was issued for Galveston County, in southeastern Texas.

Aftermath
After Willa moved ashore in southwestern Mexico, Mexican officials in Nayarit sent 76 vehicles with medical supplies to reach the most affected residents in the northern part of the state. For one week, officials made Mexican Federal Highway 15D – a toll road – free of charge, and instead collected more than MX$1.1 million (US$57,000) in donations for the residents left homeless by the hurricane. The office of the Attorney General of the Republic sent 11 tonnes of food as well as four doctors and 500 kg of medicine to Sinaloa and Nayarit. Save the Children sent 800 hygiene kits to children in Nayarit. They also were operating 17 dining facilities for nearly 3,000 children, but were forced to close four located in Isla del Bosque, Escuinapa, and Teacapán due to power outages. The Government of Mexico City established a collection center for food, cleaning products, and hygiene products; this center was located in Mexico City's Pushkin Garden. The National System for Integral Family Development (DIF) sent 1,600 tons of aid, including pantries, galvanized sheet metal, and bottled water, to areas affected by Willa.

Mexican authorities sent 45,000 people to assist with relief efforts. Included in this group were soldiers, sailors, doctors, and nurses. Plan DN-III-E was activated in the states of Sinaloa, Durango, Nayarit, Colima, and Jalisco. About 11,000 soldiers were deployed in the municipalities of Mazatlan, Escuinapa, El Rosario, La Cruz de Elota, and Culiacán in Sinaloa to help with transporting civilians to four shelters. There, approximately 1,820 people were provided with 1,400 food rations. Soldiers also worked to repair window damage at the Teacapan Hospital as well as remove trees from roads. Around 590 soldiers were deployed in Durango. In Colima, 262 soldiers were deployed to monitor the level of the Marabasco River. One hundred and eighteen soldiers evacuated 154 people in the cities of Puerto Vallarta, Tomatlán, and Melaque in Jalisco. The Marine Plan was activated in Sinaloa and Nayarit, resulting in the dispatch of 1,800 soldiers, 163 vehicles, 8 aircraft, 15 surface units, 6 ships, and 3 mobile kitchens. Around 178 people were evacuated from Cristo Rey and El Rosario in Escuinapa. Soldiers distributed 500 food portions using a mobile kitchen in the Nayarit municipality of Tecuala.

Sinaloa Governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel declared a state of emergency for seven municipalities. In Nayarit, the National Civil Protection Coordination designated the municipalities of Tecuala, Acaponeta, Huajicori, Rosamorada, Santiago Ixcuintla, Tuxpan, Del Nayar and Ruiz as disaster areas. In the Escuinapa Municipality in Sinaloa, it was reported that over 2,000 families were living under plastic rooves six months after the storm. Additionally, Mayor Emmet Soto Grave stated that there were many irregularities in the damage reported by the previous government. In total, 144 houses had been counted from October 23–28, while more than 2,000 were actually affected. After President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had federal officials visit the city, more inaccuracies regarding damage to roads, educational institutions, and areas of tourism were discovered. Around the same time, the National Water Commission reported that the Baluarte River had seen a major increase in chromium, mercury, and nickel concentrations a month after the storm. Throughout the region, mango orchards were severely damaged by wind gusts from Willa, resulting in a 50–75% decrease in production. This decrease equated to a loss of about 70,000 tonnes or 13,300 ha of mango. At least 1,200 farmers required loans due to significant losses. The mayor of Mazatlan sent 60 workers, two cranes, and three dump trucks to Escuinapa. Several months after the storm, the communities of Maloya and Buenavista in El Rosario were mostly without potable water.

Those affected by Willa in Nayarit said they felt "abandoned by the authorities" after only receiving help from disaster organizations for the month and a half following the storm. Schools in Tuxpan did not have classes during that time as the facilities were unusable. The community of Los Sandovales in the Acaponeta Municipality was destroyed, resulting in many of the families there becoming homeless. In Sinaloa, people used their own funds to rebuild their homes due to lack of resources from Fonden. The state delivered MX$2 million (US$100,651) worth of rotten mattresses to victims and allowed them access to pantries in exchange for support letters. However, support ranging between MX$1,800–10,000 (US$91–$503) was provided to small businesses. Fonden authorized a total of MX$84.7 million (US$4.3 million) to cover damage resulting from Willa, however, no repair work had commenced in the months after the storm.