Hurricane Patricia makes landfall in Mexico

Hurricane Patricia, considered one of the Western hemisphere’s strongest hurricanes ever, is bearing down on the west coast of Mexico, a tourist hotspot where hundreds of Canadians are now vacationing.

A worker boards up the front of a waterfront business, as residents prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Patricia in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Friday, October 23, 2015.

“The hurricane is so big and so intense that it has the capacity to pass over both the Sierra Madres in our country – that is, through our most mountainous ranges – and then exit the country on the other side into the north part of the Gulf of Mexico and possibly the United States”, CONAGUA director Robert Ramirez de la Parra said.

Billboards and trees were toppled as the hurricane lashed inland through Jalisco and Colima, packing strong winds and heavy rains.

Around 15,000 tourists were hurriedly evacuated from the beach resort of Puerto Vallarta as people scrambled to get away from the advancing hurricane, whose massive swirl over Mexico could be seen clearly from space. According to meteorologists, life-threatening flash floods and mudslides are now predicted in the rural areas as the storm is now moving inland over mountains and villages.

Hurricane Patricia strengthened into a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm as it churned toward Mexico’s Pacific coast, having grown at an “incredible rate” in the past 12 hours, the World Meteorological Organization said on Friday.

Residents who were evacuated from their homes are pictured at the University of Puerto Vallarta, which is being used as a shelter in the resort city.

“We’re remaining as positive as we possibly can in this situation”, Yochim said.

The storm’s maximum sustained winds early Saturday had decreased to near 75 miles per hour (120 kph) with rapid weakening expected to continue.

Mexican authorities have been evacuating thousands of residents and tourists and a state of emergency has been declared in three states in Hurricane Patricia’s path. Civil protection officials warned that past hurricanes have filled the city’s streets with water, sand and flying projectiles.

Until Patricia, it was considered the most powerful to have formed in the Pacific, a Category Five hurricane with 260 km/h winds.

Friday night they were hunkering down in their hotel, the Riu Palace, in Puerto Vallarta.

Nullis likened the storm’s destructive capacity to Typhoon Haiyan that killed more than 6,300 people when it swept ashore in November 2013, destroying around 90 percent of the city of Tacloban.

This was the most powerful storm to ever hit America.

Mexico’s tourism secretary says about half of the people staying at hotels left ahead of the storm, as crews from North Carolina prepare to respond.

It’s similar in size to Hurricane Andrew, a devastating but compact hurricane that walloped South Florida in 1992.

The eastern and northern Pacific regions have had more tropical storms than usual this season; the Atlantic has had less.

Patricia also threatens Texas with forecasters saying that even after the storm breaks, up its tropical moisture will likely feed heavy rains already soaking the state. Galveston was under a coastal flood advisory until Saturday night.