Hurricane Patricia weakens, but still 'extremely dangerous'

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Hurricane Patricia weakened to a Category 4 storm Friday night with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, but remained "extremely dangerous" over southwestern Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said. Patricia made landfall hours earlier as a Category 5 storm, the fiercest.

(CNN) -- Hurricane Patricia -- the strongest hurricane ever recorded -- made landfall on Mexico's Pacific coast Friday evening, its 165 mph winds barreling into southwestern Mexico near Cuixmala, officials said.

The monster storm touched down about 6:15 p.m., hours after weakening slightly with sustained winds decreasing to 190 mph and gusts to 235 mph, according to the U.S National Weather Service.

Even then, Patricia lashed the coast with fierce winds and rain as residents and tourists in resorts such as Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo sought shelter.

Patricia landed about 55 miles west-northwest of Manzanillo, home to the largest container port on Mexico's Pacific seaboard.
Hurricane Patricia weakens, but still 'extremely dangerous' - CNN.com

That is one bad storm.

 

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Came ashore on sparsely populated land...

Megastorm Patricia inflicts little damage on Mexican coast
24 Oct.`15 — Only a day after menacing Mexico as one of history's strongest storms, Hurricane Patricia left surprisingly little damage in its wake Saturday and quickly dissipated into an ordinary low-pressure system that posed little threat beyond heavy rain.

The hurricane's most powerful punch landed on a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico's Pacific Coast before the system crashed into mountains that sapped its potentially catastrophic force. The popular beach city of Puerto Vallarta and the port of Manzanillo were spared the brunt of the violent weather. Authorities were still trying to reach some of the hardest-hit areas, which were blocked by downed trees, but the devastation appeared to be far less than feared. There were no reports of deaths or injuries, said Roberto Lopez Lara, interior secretary for the state of Jalisco. It was a remarkable outcome, considering that Patricia had been a Category 5 hurricane with winds up to 200 mph (325 kph) before coming ashore with slightly less power in an area dotted with sleepy villages and a few upscale hotels.

Residents stand outside their flooded house in Zoatlan, Nayarit state, some 150 km northwest of Guadalajara, Mexico​

Hours later, as the storm spun inland, it collapsed into fast-moving bands of rain aimed at already sodden Texas. Residents of towns nearest the strike described enduring a terrifying night. "Those were the longest five hours of my life," said Sergio Reyna Ruiz, who took cover between the shaking concrete walls of a neighbor's home when Patricia passed over the hamlet of La Fortuna, about 2 miles (kilometers) from the ocean. "Five hours riding the monster."

Before the storm hit, Reyna tried to secure the shingles of his roof with metal cables. But looking up from the inside Saturday, the ceiling was a patchwork of old tile and blue sky. He and family members next door tried to clean up, sawing through a downed tree and putting waterlogged mattresses and books into the sun to dry. All were thankful that everyone survived: "It's something to tell the grandchildren," Reyna said. Down the road in Chamela, people picked through boards, tree limbs and other refuse for anything salvageable. All 40 families that live there rode out the storm at a shelter in nearby San Mateo. When they returned, they found little that was recognizable.

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For Mexico, Hurricane Patricia hit just the right spot
October 24,`15 — Hurricane Patricia, a storm of record-setting ferocity, proved no match for the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains.

Patricia smashed ashore at almost the perfect location, meteorologists and Mexican officials said Saturday, making landfall with 160-mph winds on a sparsely populated stretch of Pacific coastline and then colliding with a tall, rugged mountain range that disrupted its swirling momentum and sapped its strength. Confronted by those mountains, Patricia crumpled, rapidly shrinking from a Category 5 hurricane to a tropical depression as it limped inland. Still wary of possible flooding and landslides, Mexican officials were reluctant to “declare victory,” Transportation Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said at a Saturday news conference. But with no deaths reported and only minor damage, he said, “there was, let’s say, good fortune.”

From the beginning, Patricia has been an unusual creature. It grew astonishingly quickly at sea, at one point registering 200-mph winds — making it the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. But, in some respects, it was puny. When Patricia arrived in Mexico, its hurricane force winds extended only 35 miles from its center and its eye was only five miles across, limiting the area impacted by its strongest force, said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in the United States, which closely tracked the storm.

The storm also slipped neatly between two population centers, missing them both — the resort town of Puerto Vallarta to the north, and the port town of Manzanillo to the south. “Had something like that hit a populated area like Puerto Vallarta, you would be looking at catastrophic destruction and probably fatalities,” Feltgen said in an interview. “We were very fortunate. It could have been much worse.” On Saturday, rivers and creeks swelled and a few crested their banks, causing scattered minor flooding and some property damage in the highlands of Jalisco, east of Puerto Vallarta. In spots, trees and boulders lay across roads where few vehicles other than phone utility trucks and the occasional military Humvee could be seen.

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