Hurricane Simon strengthens to Category 4 off Mexico’s Pacific coast

BREAKING: Hurricane Simon strengthens to a Category 4 storm off Mexico's Pacific coast with winds up to 150mph, as Puerto Vallarta businesses board up windows and authorities warn of life-threatening flooding ahead of landfall.

Hurricane Simon is now a Category 4, and it hits Mexico within hours.

Winds are running at 150 miles an hour off the Pacific coast, and this satellite picture shows the storm's eye, sitting about 115 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, the country's biggest Pacific port. The National Hurricane Center says Simon could strengthen further before it comes ashore, late tonight or early Sunday.

The rain is the real danger. Forecasters expect ten to twenty inches across southwestern Mexico through Sunday, enough to trigger life-threatening flooding and mudslides in steep terrain. In Puerto Vallarta, businesses are boarding up windows and stacking sandbags at their doors, as you can see here. Jalisco has suspended classes in 22 coastal municipalities and evacuations from at-risk areas are already under way.

A hurricane warning covers the coast south of Puerto Vallarta, with a dangerous storm surge expected right where Simon lands. For a few million people on that coastline, the next twelve hours are the ones that count.

This is Dave King, reporting for HIT.