Hurricane Patricia Brings Flood Threat for Millions

As the storm moves inland, the authorities said, the heavy rains and flooding could cause landslides. By mid-morning yesterday morning it had been downgraded to a tropical depression with its maximum winds down to about 55 kph, the Miami-based Hurricane Center said.

Patricia’s center hit land on Friday evening near the area of Cuixmala, located between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta and home to one of Mexico’s most exclusive getaways, the US National Hurricane Center said. It is now a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 miles per hour.

But residents of the popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta breathed a sigh of relief as the town, where thousands of tourists had been staying, avoided a catastrophe.

More than 50,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas ahead of the storm, officials said.

Also on Saturday, President Enrique Peña Nieto visited Colima and Jalisco to evaluate the damage caused by Patricia, meeting with local and state authorities.

Mexican and worldwide tourists board a bus to be transported to a shelter while bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Patricia in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Friday. He describes Patricia as the strongest storm he’s seen in a quarter century of living on the coast. In the major port of Manzanillo, Colima state, soldiers shoveled sand off the city’s main boulevard while residents, a few riding around in bicycles, surveyed damage that included uprooted trees and street signs.

“Even though Patricia is weakening quickly, strong and damaging winds at higher elevations could persist through this morning”, the hurricane center said.

Hurricane Patricia forced the closing of ports in Vallarta, Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, according to the Communications and Transportation Ministry. By 10 a.m. on Saturday the storm’s sustained winds dropped drastically to 35 miles per hour, and the central pressure has risen 110 millibars.

Stores shut down in the tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta, farther north of where Patricia made landfall, and shop owners attached duct tape to their windows for protection.

“We can’t let our guard down yet”, he cautioned, noting that more rain was coming.

Saturday night into Sunday morning the remnants of Patricia will moving into southern and eastern Texas, as well as Mississippi and Louisiana.

Patricia’s power while still out at sea was comparable to that of Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 dead or missing in the Philippines two years ago, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation.

Patricia is expected to dump up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain over five western Mexican states, which could trigger life-threatening flash floods and mudslides. “It was not a densely populated area”, Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the U.S. National Hurricane Center told the AP in a San Francisco Chronicle-published article.