Strongest Hurricane Ever To Hit Mexico Tonight, Including Puerto Vallarta

Patricia’s center made landfall as a monstrous Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 165 miles per hour (270 kph), but in a relatively low-populated stretch of the Jalisco state coast near Cuixmala.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Patricia has now degraded to tropical depression status over northern Mexico.

Television news reports from the coast showed a few toppled trees and lampposts and inundated streets.

There were no reports of fatalities or major damage by early Saturday morning.

Facebook launched Safety Check for Hurricane Patricia on Saturday morning, with Mark Zuckerberg posting that he’s “thinking of everyone caught up in this storm”.

Residents visit the waterfront in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Patricia, Friday, October 23, 2015. Puddles dotted the downtown district, but nothing more than a passing thunderstorm might leave.

Maximiliano Macedo of Puerto Vallarta strolled arm in arm with his wife down the waterfront unable to resist the curiosity of seeing things by the light of day.

In his words, “Fortunately, nothing happened here”. “If those arteries are cut off what alternative means do we have to get supplies to where they’re needed”, said Bessenecker.

“With the information available up to now and taking into account that the [weather] phenomenon is ongoing, the first reports confirm that the damages have been smaller than those corresponding to a hurricane of this magnitude”, he said.

As Hurricane Patricia made landfall on the west coast of Mexico Friday evening, Convoy was in touch with their partners in the area.

Patricia plunged ashore about 65 miles (110 kilometres) southeast of Vallarta, which was protected from much of the fury by mountains.

Tourist Brandie Galle of Grants Pass, Oregon, said she had been sheltered with other guests in a ballroom with boarded-up windows at the Hard Rock Hotel in Puerto Vallarta.

“They said it looked like the storm had hit below us”, she said.

Patricia formed suddenly Tuesday as a tropical storm and quickly strengthened to a hurricane.

Over the past 24 hours, 10.25 inches of rain has been reported at Nevado De Colima in Jalisco state, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory issued at 4 a.m. Saturday.

The most affected part of the coast “did not have a large area of shallow water offshore conducive for piling up a huge storm surge”, said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at Weather Underground. Patricia peaked at 325 kph several hours earlier – more powerful than the 315 kph winds of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,350 dead or missing when it struck the Philippines in November 2013.

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.