Tropical Storm Patricia Brings Heavy Rain to Mexico

The airports in Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo and Tepic were closed Friday, but officials announced an air bridge Saturday to ferry stranded travelers out of areas hit by the storm.

In its 7:15 a.m. (1215 GMT) bulletin, the SMN cautioned, however, that Patricia was “expected to generate very heavy to intense rainfall in northeastern and western Mexico, as well as powerful wind gusts and high waves in the country’s central Pacific and northeastern states”.

Further weakening will reduce Patricia to a tropical rainstorm later on Saturday, but the danger of life-threatening flooding will once again expand and worsen across Texas and Louisiana in the United States as Patricia’s moisture and a piece of its energy surges northward, AccuWeather says.

Throughout the day Thursday and Friday city, state, and federal governments worked together to organize the evacuation of over 10,000 tourists in hotels around the city. “Security forces are patrolling the streets to protect your homes”.

He said the lack of fatalities was probably the result of the storm’s narrow footprint. “Everyone was in real shock”.

People wait for the arrival of Hrricane Patricia at a shelter in the Pacific resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Friday, October 23, 2015.

Officials were still trying to reach a few of the hardest-hit areas that were blocked by downed trees, and residents of towns nearest the strike said they had endured a awful night.

Seafront hotels were cleared of their guests while thousands of tourists were evacuated by bus or plane, many taken to shelters.

In the state of Colima, where Manzanillo lies, about 350 trees were ripped out of the ground “but fortunately there is only material damage”, Agriculture Minister Jose Calzada told Milenio television.

Early Saturday, Patricia was downgraded from a Category 5 hurricane to a tropical storm.

“We are calm”, said Gabriel Lopez, a worker at Las Hadas Hotel in the city. “Sure, gates, doors, a few windows… light roofs, that sort of thing, but nothing that was a risk to our operations”.

The maximum sustained winds of 200 miles per hour breaks the previous wind speed record of 185 miles per hour from Linda and Wilma for the strongest surface winds ever in the area of responsibility of the National Hurricane Center. The scale tops out at 5, which describes storms with sustained winds of greater than 157 miles per hour. Such storms are relatively rare and are capable of causing devastating destruction.

“For being the most powerful hurricane in the world, I think we came out okay”, said Cristian Arias, the 30-year-old owner of seafood restaurant El Bigotes, whose balcony was broken and garage damaged by Patricia. But there was no word yet on the state of the resort.