Cat 5 Patricia lashes Mexico
NHC: Monster storm possibly ‘catastrophic’
Hurricane Patricia, packing the strongest hurricane winds ever recorded, smashed Friday evening into Mexico’s southwestern coast, a region best known for its beaches and the resort city of Puerto Vallarta.
In the tense hours before the storm landed with 160 mph winds, schools closed and temporary shelters opened from Puerto Vallarta to Manzanillo along the Pacific Coast. Ships were ordered to return to port, and airports were shuttered.
People were plunged into darkness, too, as Mexico’s state-run electric utility announced it was cutting power ahead of landfall as a precaution. The storm came ashore about 55 miles west-northwest of Manzanillo, a commercial seaport.
Patricia was called “potentially catastrophic” by the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Hurricane Patricia roared onshore in southwestern Mexico on Friday evening, bringing lashing rains, surging seas and cyclonic winds with what forecasters called a potential to cause “catastrophic” damage.
There were early reports of flooding and landslides, but no word on fatalities or major damage. TV news reports from the coast showed some toppled trees and lampposts and inundated streets.
The storm’s center made landfall near Cuixmala, about 55 miles west-northwest of the port city of Manzanilla. Record wind speeds measured earlier in the day had fallen off somewhat to around 160 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said, but Patricia was still a dangerous Category 5 storm.
Residents and tourists hunkered down in shelters and homes across a stretch of Pacific coastline dotted with sleepy fishing villages and gleaming resorts, including Manzanilla and the popular beach city of Puerto Vallarta.
Patricia’s projected path was expected to take it over mountainous terrain, which is prone to flash floods and landslides.
In Puerto Vallarta, residents had reinforced homes with sandbags and shop windows with boards and tape, and hotels rolled up beachfront restaurants. The airport was closed and all but deserted, but lines formed at a bus station as people sought to buy tickets to Guadalajara and other inland destinations.
At a Red Cross shelter, some 90 people waited in the heavy, humid air, including senior citizens in wheelchairs and children snuggled between their parents on mattresses on the floor.
Carla Torres and her family sought refuge there in the afternoon, fearful of what Patricia might do to her home two blocks from a river in an area vulnerable to high winds.
“Here we are with those who can give us help,” Torres said.
Patricia formed Tuesday as a tropical storm and quickly strengthened to a hurricane. Within 30 hours it had zoomed to a recordbeating Category 5 storm, catching many off guard with its rapid growth.
By Friday, it was the most powerful hurricane on record in the Western Hemisphere, with maximum sustained winds that peaked at 200 mph, according to the hurricane center.
Patricia’s power while 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. More than 4 million people were displaced and over 1 million houses were destroyed or damaged in 44 provinces in the central Visayas region, a large cluster of islands.
Mexican officials declared a state of emergency in dozens of municipalities in Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco states, and schools were closed. Many residents bought supplies ahead of Patricia’s arrival. Authorities opened hundreds of shelters and announced plans to shut off electricity as a safety precaution.
According to the 2010 census, there were more than 7.3 million inhabitants in Jalisco state and more than 255,000 in Puerto Vallarta municipality. There were more than 650,000 in Colima state, and more than 161,000 in Manzanilla.
One of the worst Pacific hurricanes to ever hit Mexico slammed into the same region, in Colima state, in October 1959, killing at least 1,500 people, according to Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention.
Civil protection officials warned that past hurricanes have filled the city’s streets with water, sand and flying projectiles.
“We need people to understand the magnitude of the hurricane,” Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio told Radio Formula.
Jose Manuel Gonzalez Ochoa was one of the residents who decided to get out of Puerto Vallarta, to a town about 30 minutes from the coast. His family lives in their ground-floor chicken restaurant, Pollos Vallarta, and neighbors told them water was 5 feet deep in the street the last time a hurricane came through.
“The whole government is telling us to leave,” he said. “You have to obey.”
Patricia also threatens Texas, with forecasters saying that even after the storm breaks up, its tropical moisture will likely feed heavy rains already soaking the state.
The U.S. National Weather Service said a flash-flood watch would be in effect through Sunday morning in Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio.