Floods And Landslides As Hurricane Hits Mexico

Late Friday President Enrique Pena Nieto addressed the nation on television, saying that the first reports “confirm that the damage has been smaller than that corresponding to a hurricane of this magnitude”.

Hurricane Patricia quickly grew in intensity Thursday and by Friday had 200 miles per hour winds and was being called the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. The hurricane avoided direct hits on resort city Puerto Vallarta and major port city of Manzanillo. Authorities have prepared shelters for those fleeing the hurricane, warning people in the states of Colima, Jalisco, and Michoacan to prepare for torrential rainfall of up to 20 inches.

“But like they said it would be? No”. “But we can’t let our guard down now”.

Patricia weakened to a Category 2 hurricane last night with maximum sustained winds of 155km/h and was expected to become a tropical storm later in the day.

The storm came ashore in a sparsely populated area between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta and then collided with the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains and quickly lost strength. The threat of flooding, too is extremely strong, with heavy rains still battering the region.

In the past 30 hours, Hurricane Patricia developed into the strongest hurricane ever and its path put it perfectly on route to hit Mexico’s backside in a couple of hours.

“The amount of damage is going to be entirely dependent on where the storm hits”, said Sean Sublette, a meteorologist at Climate Central.

But Trinidad Lopez emphasized that it was still early to know the full impact of storm.

The National Hurricane Center warned of flash flooding and mudslides in areas where as many as 10 million people could still have to deal with the watery fallout.

In comparison to Patricia, Hurricane Manuel moved more slowly when it made landfall in western Mexico in 2013, and it was a heavily destructive and deadly storm, said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at commercial weather forecaster Weather Underground. In little over 24 hours the National Hurricane Center downgraded Patricia to a remnant low over northeastern Mexico.

Patricia is centered about 35 miles (55 kilometers) northeast of Zacatecas, Mexico, and is moving toward the north-northeast at 21 mph (33 kph).