Alaska Airlines issued a statement that reads in part: “As a result of the airport closure, all 10 Alaska Airlines flights to and from Puerto Vallarta have been cancelled for Friday”.
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To give a comparison, Hurricane Patricia is about twice as strong as Fabian, which struck us in 2003 leaving substantial damage and four people dead. Photo courtesy the Weather Channel/Johnny Ornelas.
President Enrique Peña Nieto, in a tweet, said: “Hurricane Patricia is on the coast of Mexico”. Before Patricia, Typhoon Haiyan, with 195-mph winds, held the record for the strongest hurricane ever measured with reliable, modern methods.
Maximum wind speeds clock in at 200 miles per hour and its central pressure has dropped all the way to 879 millibars – both records.
Rainfall amounts of up to a foot in a short span of time between Friday night and Saturday over the Mexican states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán and Guerrero could trigger “life-threatening flash floods and mud slides”, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Image provided by Mexico’s Presidency shows Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (R) leading an emergency meeting with members of his Cabinet, before the imminent landfall of Hurricane Patricia, in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, in the early hours of October 23, 2015.
“The Category 5 storm has forced evacuations in Puerto Vallarta and other areas along Mexico’s coast”. Luis Felipe Puente, Mexico’s civil defense coordinator, said schools would be closed in Colima state, which is home to Manzanillo.
The Vallarta Yacht Club posted a message on its Facebook page Thursday morning warning members that hurricane preparations need to start now. Sandra Rojas and her husband, a veterinarian from San Jose, Costa Rica, were among those trying to leave.
“We are calm”, said Gabriel Lopez, a worker at Las Hadas Hotel in the city. “But it’s nature. Anything can happen”.
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While on vacation, Marc McDonald and Vic Reyna, of Beaumont, along with a couple from Houston, prepared to ride out Hurricane Patricia Friday evening in Puerto Vallarta. The organization is also warning of an extremely risky storm surge that will result in significant coastal flooding near where the storm’s center makes landfall. “We are calm”, said Gabriel Lopez, a worker at Las Hadas Hotel in Manzanillo.
