A Colorado Springs family headed back home Saturday after being evacuated from a southwest Mexico hotel in anticipation of Hurricane Patricia. He had spent the night hunkered down with family members in this inland town.
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Meanwhile, as the remnants of Patricia barrel northward, they’ve collided with another storm system hovering over Texas.
Post disaster efforts are underway in Mexico after Hurricane Patricia made landfall on Friday night; however reports are that the storm did far less damage than originally predicted.
Joe shared a photo on Instagram of his view, writing, “This is a live photo of Puerto Vallarta Mexico”. Towns and villages south of that region were understood to have borne the brunt of the storm. Like many evacuees, Valerio had prayed “almost every minute” for survival until Hurricane Patricia was halted by the mountains in Mexico. Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the U.S. National Hurricane Center said that they were fortunate that the hurricane made landfall in an area with little population.
Patricia, which became a hurricane overnight, had maximum sustained winds of about 185 miles per hour (295 km per hour) as it moved toward the north-northwest at 10 mph (16 kph).
The Puerto Vallarta Tourism Board issued a statement on Saturday afternoon saying that hotels, the cruise port and the airport were all back online and functioning normally and skies were sunny again.
A man takes pictures of the surf on the beach in Acapulco, Mexico.
Patricia arrived about 65 miles southeast of Vallarta, which was protected by the mountains in the area.
Tourists watch as waves hit the shore in Acapulco, October 22, 2015. The Category 5 storm – which peaked offshore with winds of 200 miles an hour – ultimately inflicted less damage than many feared: The brunt of the hurricane did not reach the heavily populated cities of Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo.
“It is also no longer over water, which is like fuel for hurricanes”, he said. Local schools were also closed and a few business owners were busy boarding and taping up windows.
Thousands of residents and tourists fled the advance of the storm, one of the strongest in recorded history, seeking refuge in hastily arranged shelters.
A fisherman checks his boat in Acapulco.
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 U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization.
President Enrique Pena Nieto, in a tweet on his official page, wrote, “As of now, there are no reports of major damages from Hurricane Patricia”.
Although it has weakened, but winds of 155 kmph are still blowing over the region.
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“Many people remained in their homes in high-risk zones, and it’s too soon to know what happened to all of them”, he said.
