The gravity of hurricane effects on forests, livelihoods, and infrastructure is the product of social-political dynamics, land-use practices and decisions, and biophysical and meteorological factors that interact to make some societies more vulnerable than others to experiencing a hurricane event as a disaster. In this article, we discuss how three syndromes of vulnerability (elimination of natural vegetation cover, deficient land and ecological planning, and economic specialization) interact to determine the ecological and social vulnerability of nine rural communities located in the south coast of Jalisco, Mexico, after the passage of hurricane Jova in October 2011. Based on interviews with 80 families from these communities and visual interpretations of satellite imagery before and after the hurricane, we show how position in the landscape, economic specialization, land use practices, and non-fulfillment of the legal framework for protecting forests in risky areas combine to determine vulnerability of families and vegetation to the effects of hurricane. As disasters are the result of a complex combination of natural menaces and accumulated human actions that increase vulnerability, decreasing impacts of future hurricanes in the area will depend on a landscape planning, willingness to cooperate towards common objectives, change in land use practices, and a more proactive political interrelationship of local, state and federal government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]