As two distinct storms churned across the Pacific on Thursday, residents along Mexico’s west coast piled sandbags to reinforce beachfront shops and fled their homes, while Hawaii’s Big Island and Maui prepared for potentially catastrophic flooding.

Torrential rainfall associated with the formidable Hurricane Polo may trigger life-threatening inundation and landslides across Mexico, as reported by the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

In locales such as the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, seawater surged through residences on Thursday, leaving wooden planks and furnishings scattered across the streets.

Polo has oscillated between Category 4 and Category 5, both of which denote major-hurricane intensity.

The most ferocious winds were anticipated to stay offshore as the storm's center skirted the coastline before venturing out to sea.

Far off the southern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island, Tropical Storm Nolo was intensifying, and forecasters anticipate that hurricane conditions will reach the state by Friday night.

Rainfall could exceed 2 feet (60 centimeters) across islands that are still recuperating from a succession of storms.

Schools remained closed for the remainder of the week.

The string of hurricanes coincides with the weather phenomenon El Niño, which is driving major environmental changes around the world, worsening drought in some areas and causing flooding in others.

El Niño usually weakens the Atlantic hurricane season, while it tends to boost tropical cyclone activity in the Pacific with moist air and little wind shear.

Mexican authorities were establishing shelters and clearing people from beaches, while coastal residents endeavoured to shield businesses from being swept away.

Those in high-risk areas were being evacuated.

A considerable portion of the apprehension voiced by locals stemmed from hurricanes in years past that wrought devastation upon cities along the Pacific coast.

Hurricane Otis in 2023 plunged Acapulco into turmoil for weeks, catching many off guard.

“A great many people insisted it would never come to pass, and then it did.

Thereafter, you are left in a state of perpetual apprehension,” said Gonzalo Ramírez, a bartender in the city.

Guerrero state was deemed particularly vulnerable to flooding and mudslides, according to the hurricane center.

Tropical-storm-force winds extended as far as 125 miles (205 kilometers) from the eye of the storm.

Having steered away from land, Polo was forecast to curve back toward Mexico's coast further north on Saturday.

The hurricane represented the most formidable menace to the rural and mountainous coastline of Michoacan and Guerrero, an area interspersed with small tourist towns and ports.

Much of this region is characterised by poverty, and residents habitually lament that they are left to fend for themselves in the event of natural disasters.

Mexican authorities have deployed 15,000 security personnel along the coast and suspended schools as a precautionary measure.

Authorities did not immediately specify how many people had been evacuated.

Forecasters warned that Tropical Storm Nolo could intensify into a major hurricane, potentially unleashing 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain upon the Big Island, with even greater accumulations possible through Saturday.

The hurricane center said the island of Maui could likewise be subjected to life-threatening floods and mudslides.

While powerful winds are anticipated, the primary concern remains flash flooding, according to John Bravender, a warning coordination meteorologist with the weather service, who spoke during a news conference on Wednesday afternoon.

The intense precipitation forecast for the Big Island threatens to affect the very same southeastern area that was severely battered in August by Hurricane Lala.

"That alone could trigger catastrophic flooding, but when you add that to ground that has been rained on off and on for the last couple of months … that rain could cause even more damage," Bravender said.

Hawaiian authorities urged residents to assemble emergency kits, and the governor issued an emergency proclamation, mobilizing over 230 members of the Hawaii National Guard.

Hawaiian Electric, the state's main utility, said that crews which had been helping Kauai restore power after this month's Hurricane Lowell would go back to Oahu, Maui and the Big Island to prepare for the storm that was coming.

According to the U.S. hurricane center, Tropical Storm Fay re-formed early Thursday in the northern Atlantic Ocean, positioned nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) west-southwest of the Azores.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Odalys was situated roughly 1,110 miles (1,785 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern extremity of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.