While still out to sea as a Category 5 hurricane, Patricia blew furious winds of 200 miles per hour. The isolated area of Cuixmala, with its luxury villas and fishing villages, took the full force of the hurricane.
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Patricia degraded from one of history’s most powerful hurricanes to an ordinary low-pressure system over northern Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Saturday, leaving surprisingly little damage in its wake and posing little threat beyond continued heavy rain.
It is expected to have maximum sustained winds of 325 kilometres per hour.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico Patricia, which weakened quickly after making landfall in Mexico as a fearsome Category 5 hurricane, caused no casualties and only minor damage, authorities said Saturday in a preliminary report.
Hurricane Patricia, deemed the strongest storm ever recorded on the earth, hit Mexico Friday night around 6:15 p.m. Its eye first touched land in the southwest part of Mexico near Jalisco; it has since travelled throughout Mexico near Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Apolzoco and Zacatecas.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a big problem with the water”, said Dario Pomina, 43, manager of the Posadas de Roger hotel in the city centre.
Interestingly, before landfall Patricia had gained speed almost as quickly as it would decrease. The NHC officially downgraded Patricia to tropical storm status on Saturday morning and then to a tropical low a few hours later.
Patricia continues to weaken after barreling onshore with catastrophic force, which the major cities in southwestern Mexico escaped. No doubt this helped to hold down the amount of losses. “It ran into the mountains and that completely disrupted the circulation”, Feltgen said.
About 400,000 people live in vulnerable areas, Mexico’s National Disaster Fund Jose Maria Tapia Franco said.
A few structural damage to homes and businesses occurred as a result of fallen trees; however, severe damage has been limited, AIR said.
In Michoacan state, near the northern end of the hurricane’s path, the government reported severe damages to highways and huge financial losses in banana and papaya plantations, according to El Universal. Mexican authorities have declared a state of emergency. Evacuation flights from the resort town of Puerto Vallarta on Saturday evening had several empty seats.
Reports note a high possibility for the hurricane to become quite unsafe as it makes landfall.
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Texas is also expected to receive 7 to 10 inches of rain in areas south of Dallas, with the possibility of flash flooding.
