Hurricane Erick was advancing rapidly near Mexico's southern Pacific coast as a Category 4 storm and was expected to make landfall on Thursday, authorities said, potentially bringing intense rains and life-threatening floods and mudslides.

Hurricane Erick powered up into a Category 3 major hurricane Wednesday evening as it bore down on the southern Mexico coast, threatening to unleash destructive winds, flash floods and a dangerous storm surge on the region in coming hours,

Erick was nearing landfall along the western coast of Mexico as a Category 4 hurricane early Thursday, as forecasters warned it had "extremely destructive winds near its core."