Saturday, October 24, 2015
INTERNATIONAL Le plus grand ouragan de l'histoire Patricia a touché terre au Mexique Première publication 23 octobre 2015 à 06h23 Mise à jour : 23 octobre 2015 à 22h47
Le plus grand ouragan de l'histoire
Patricia a touché terre au Mexique
Première publication 23 octobre 2015 à 06h23
Mise à jour : 23 octobre 2015 à 22h47
Mise à jour : 23 octobre 2015 à 22h47
Par Jennifer Gonzalez Covarrubias | Agence France-Presse
L'ouragan géant Patricia, plus grand ouragan de l'histoire, a touché terre vendredi en fin d'après-midi sur la côte pacifique mexicaine, faisant craindre des dégâts humains et matériels considérables.
Les autorités ont déplacé des habitants, fermé les ports, les écoles, et évacué des touristes avant l'arrivée dans l'État du Jalisco (ouest) de cet ouragan classé catégorie 5 - maximale sur l'échelle de Saffir-Simpson -, selon le centre des ouragans de Miami.
L'oeil de l'ouragan a frappé la localité de Emiliano Zapata, à 95 km de l'important port de Manzanillo, à 18h15 heure locale, a annoncé à la télévision le directeur de la Commission mexicaine de l'eau, Roberto Ramirez.
(Capture d'écran National Hurricane Center)
Des images prises à l'abord de la station spatiale internationalepar le commandant Scott Kelly, qui les a partagées sur Twitter,montrent l'ampleur de cet ouragan monstrueux.
(Photo prise de la station spatiale internationale, Scott Kelly)
L'ouragan s'est légèrement affaibli, mais se maintenait à la catégorie 5 avec des vents à 270 km/h, ont indiqué les météorologues. Un peu plus tôt, des vents records de 325 km/h avaient été enregistrés.
«L'ouragan Patricia est maintenant sur la côte du Mexique. Ne sortez pas. Protégez-vous et suivez les instructions de la protection civile», a écrit le président mexicain Enrique Pena Nieto sur son compte Twitter.
«Nous sommes face à un phénomène naturel, une force qui n'a jamais été vue auparavant. Nous allons devoir affronter des moments difficiles» avait déclaré le président quelques heures plus tôt sur une radio nationale.
«Le pays fait face à une menace de grande échelle», a-t-il ajouté, soulignant que la priorité du gouvernement était «de protéger et de sauver la vie des Mexicains».
(Crédit photo: Reuters)
Selon le secrétaire au Tourisme, José Calzada, il pleut «très fortement» dans l'État de Colima «où environ 350 arbres ont été arrachés», mais aucune victime n'a pour l'heure été signalée.
Environ 7000 touristes étrangers et 21 000 touristes mexicains séjournaient dans la station balnéaire avant l'arrivée de Patricia, selon le secrétaire au Tourisme de l'État du Jalisco, Enrique Ramos Flores.
Selon les autorités américaines, des dizaines de milliers de touristes américains sont dans les zones menacées.
(Photo Reuters)
Le président Barack Obama a annoncé que des spécialistes américains des désastres étaient sur place et prêts à aider. Il a également adressé un message de soutien au peuple mexicain.
Le Venezuela a lui aussi proposé son assistance. «Nous sommes solidaires du Mexique, nous sommes à la disposition du gouvernement et du peuple mexicain pour leur apporter l'aide dont ils pourraient avoir besoin en ce moment», a déclaré à Caracas le président vénézuélien Nicolas Maduro.
(Photo Reuters)
Toutes les boutiques ont été fermées dans la ville touristique de Puerto Vallarta et les propriétaires ont calfeutré leurs vitrines.
«J'ai distribué des rubans adhésifs à des gens qui n'étaient pas préparés», racontait Ramiro Arias, propriétaire d'une boutique d'encadrement.
(Photo Reuters)
Les hôtels du front de mer de Puerto Vallarta ont été évacués et des touristes ont été conduits vers des abris, l'aéroport ou des stations d'autobus.
Selon les autorités, 3500 personnes au total ont quitté Puerto Vallarta par autobus et avion.
Un centre de la Croix-Rouge a été transformé en abri pour 109 personnes parmi lesquels des Américains, des Canadiens et des Italiens.
«J'ai eu la malchance d'être au mauvais endroit au mauvais moment», commentait un jeune Italien, diplômé en médecine. «J'ai découvert qu'un ouragan arrivait grâce à un artisan. J'ai pensé que c'était une blague».
Des personnes attendaient en milieu de journée à une station pour tenter de prendre un des derniers autobus quittant la ville tandis que d'autres achetaient de l'eau ou chargeaient leur véhicule de bidons d'essence.
Patricia devrait apporter des précipitations pouvant atteindre 51 cm dans les États mexicains du Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan et Guerrero, ce qui pourrait générer des glissements de terrain.
Les autorités ont coupé l'électricité de Puerto Vallarta à Manzanillo pour éviter les électrocutions.
Jose Maria Tapia Franco, directeur du Fonds national des désastres, a souligné que 400 000 personnes vivaient dans des conditions précaires dans le secteur.
Les autorités ont déployé 400 policiers fédéraux pour venir en aide à la population.
Dans le village de Boca de Pascuales, les autorités ont mis 70 personnes à l'abri et 30 autres ont quitté la côte pour se rendre à l'intérieur des terres chez des proches.
Les services d'urgence ont été mobilisés et les autorités ont ordonné jeudi la fermeture d'écoles dans les États du Jalisco, Colima et Guerrero.
Les ports ont été fermés dans les États du Jalisco, Nayarit, Michoacan, Guerrero et Oaxaca. Celui d'Acapulco, dans l'État du Guerrero, l'est également aux bateaux de grande taille.
En 2013, deux tempêtes quasi simultanées avaient touché les côtes pacifique et atlantique du Mexique, entraînant la mort de 157 personnes.
Patricia grows into major hurricane threatening Mexico AFP By Jennifer Gonzalez Covarrubias October 22, 2015 11:06 PM
Patricia grows into major hurricane threatening Mexico
By Jennifer Gonzalez CovarrubiasOctober 22, 2015 11:06 PM
Manzanillo (Mexico) (AFP) - A massive Hurricane Patricia roared toward Mexico's Pacific coast, prompting authorities to suspend classes, close ports and urge tourists to stay away from the region.
The US National Hurricane Center said "preparations should be rushed to completion" as Patricia increased ominously from a category two to a category four storm in the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.
Packing maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometers (130 miles) per hour, the hurricane was expected to strike the coast on Friday afternoon or evening, the Miami-based center said.
"Some strengthening is forecast tonight and Patricia is expected to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through landfall," it said in a statement.
Forecasts show that Patricia could make landfall in the western state of Jalisco, near the border with Colima state.
The region includes the major port of Manzanillo in Colima and Jalisco's tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta.
"We are patrolling communities on the coast in the Puerto Vallarta area as well as Melaque and La Huerta, urging the most vulnerable population to get to safety," Jalisco state civil protection director Jose Trinidad Lopez Rivas told Foro television.
- Schools, ports closed -
Emergency services personnel were being moved from other states to the threatened region, said Mexico's National Water Commission director Roberto de la Parra.
"It is moving much faster than hurricanes we have had in the past," de la Parra told a news conference.
Mexican officials closed schools in Jalisco, Colima and Guerrero states.
Two dams in Jalisco and Michoacan were being drained to prevent flooding.
Ports closed to small boats in several ports in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Michoacan, Guerrero and Oaxaca. The port of Acapulco in Guerrero was shut for larger ships.
At 2100 GMT, Patricia was 400 kilometers south of Manzanillo, according to the US Hurricane Center.
The storm was moving west-northwest at 20 kilometers per hour.
Patricia is expected to produce six to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of rainfall accumulations over the states of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero, which could produce flash floods and mudslides, the US center said.
The storm surge could also produce coastal flooding, accompanied by "large and destructive waves," it warned.
The water commission warned that rivers could rise and roads could be affected by the bad weather.
- Wind force causes concern -
Mexico's interior ministry activated its emergency response committee to coordinate the response.
Officials said nearly 1,800 shelters for 259,000 are available, but no evacuations have been ordered so far.
"The amount of water and the strength of the wind worry us," national civil protection coordinator Luis Felipe Puente told a news conference.
Jalisco, Michoacan, Colima and Nayarit are expected to get the equivalent of 40 percent of their annual rainfall in the next 48 hours, the water commission said.
Mexico faces the double threat of Atlantic and Pacific tropical storms during the hurricane season, which ends November 30.
In 2013, twin storms Ingrid and Manuel nearly simultaneously struck each coast, leaving 157 people dead in a rare double onslaught.
One of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded is fueled by El Niño, scientists say
One of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded is fueled by El Niño, scientists say
Hurricane Patricia, one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded, is being fueled by El Niño, a weather phenomenon that continues to gain strength in the Pacific Ocean, scientists say.
Scientists say the powerful hurricane offers a stark preview of a turbulent weather season to come for Mexico, California and the southern United States. Climate experts say this El Niño could be among the three strongest on record.
“El Niño is high-octane fuel for hurricanes,” said Bill Patzert, climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.
“A hurricane feeds off warm water, and of course now El Niño has piled up a tremendous volume of warm water in the eastern Pacific, which has fed these hurricanes,” Patzert said.
Hurricane Patricia’s arrival bears an eerie resemblance to another hurricane that swept into Mexico’s west coast in October of 1997 -- the year that gave the world the strongest El Niño ever recorded. Hurricane Pauline killed an estimated 230 people in Guerrero and Oaxaca states of southern Mexico as it made landfall in the city of Acapulco.
That hurricane 18 years ago dumped up to 16 inches of rain along the south coast of Mexico. Worst hit were the hillside outskirts of Acapulco, where many parts of the city were cut off by landslides and flooding, and rivers of mud and rocks swept into neighborhoods. Trees were pulled from their roots and boulders the size of washing machines rolled onto roads.
Witnesses said the mudflows looked like lava, making it difficult for some people to escape the swirling rivers of water and mud. More than 40,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Multiple hurricanes battered Mexico in 1997.
Hurricane Rick smashed into southern Mexico and Hurricane Nora struck Baja California before weakening into a still-powerful storm system that arrived in Southern California, causing millions of dollars in crop damage in Imperial County.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at Stanford University, said the waters fueling Hurricane Patricia this week are extraordinarily warm -- about 87 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about three or four degrees above the average for that area at this time of year.
“The temperatures in that region are either the warmest they’ve ever been observed in that region, or very close to it. It’s as warm as it’s ever been in that part of the ocean,” Swain said.
“So if you have warmer warm tropical ocean, the potential intensity of hurricanes increases.”
In fact, “the ocean temperatures in that region are considerably above where they were on the strongest El Niño on record previously. There is actually more energy in that region this year,” Swain said.
Swain said he thinks that part of the ocean’s rise in temperature is partly because of El Niño, but part of it might be because of climate change.
In any event, the warm temperatures have led to the strongest hurricane in the record of modern instrumentation in both the Eastern Pacific and the Western Hemisphere.
Patricia was strengthening so fast so quickly, “it’s been breaking every record that’s been set. And it was getting close to the strongest hurricane ever,” Swain said.
Of Hurricane Patricia, Patzert says: “This is a monster. Its track takes it over some of the poorest and least-equipped villages and communities in western and central Mexico. It’s hard to exaggerate this one.”
Of California, Patzert said the state's expected dousing should begin in earnest by January, courtesy of what could be a train of storms -- thankfully, none of them directly caused by hurricanes. (Similarly, the powerful storms that slammed into Los Angeles County after the buildup of the 1997 El Niño arrived in early 1998.)
But because the end of the hurricane season won't come until the end of November, Southern California could receive the remnant rains from hurricanes that ram into Mexico.
Follow me for the latest news in earthquake safety, El Niño, and the drought:@ronlin.
MORE ON EL NIÑO:
Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times
Emergency declared in western Mexico due to hurricane Patricia HURRICANES PACIFIC | 23 de Octubre de 2015
AMERICA IN ENGLISHVOLVER A "AMERICA IN ENGLISH"
Emergency declared in western Mexico due to hurricane Patricia
HURRICANES PACIFIC | 23 de Octubre de 2015
Mexico City, Oct 23 (EFE).- Mexico's interior ministry declared a state of emergency in several municipalities of the Mexican states of Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco due to hurricane Patricia, which transformed into a category 4 storm.
The latest bulletin of Mexico's National Weather Service said Thursday the hurricane was located 400 km (250 miles) south of Manzanillo, Colima, and 570 km (355 miles) south-southeast of Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco.
The hurricane is moving in a west-northwesterly direction at 20 kph (13 mph) with sustained winds of 215 km (135 miles) and gusts of up to 260 kph (160 mph).
The National Coordination of Civil Protection declared an emergency in the municipalities of Armeria, Colima, Comala, Coquimatlan, Cuauhtemoc, Ixtlahuacan, Manzanillo, Minatitlan, Tecoman and Villa de Alvarez.
The state of emergency makes available resources for state governments to attend to the food, clothing and health needs of those affected.
A state of emergency has also been declared in some municipalities of Nayarit including Ahuacatlan, Amatlan de Cañas, Bahia de Banderas, Compostela, Ixtlan del Rio, Jala, San Pedro Lagunillas, Santa Maria del Oro, Santiago Ixcuintla, San Blas, Tecuala and Xalisco.
In Jalisco, the municipalties of Arandas, Atengo, Atotonilco el Alto, Atenguillo, Autlan de Navarro, Ayutla, Cabo Corrientes, Cihuatlan, Cuautla, Cuautitlan, El Salto, El Limon, Ejutla, El Grullo, Guadalajara and Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos have been put on alert.
Also on alert are Ixtlahuacan del Rio, Juchitlan, La Huerta, Mascota, Ocotlan, Puerto Vallarta, San Gabriel, Tenamaxtlan, Tlaquepaque, Toliman, Tomatlan, Tonaya, Tonila, Tuxcacuesco, Tuxpan, Union de Tula, Zapopan and Zapotitlan de Vadillo.
As a preventive measure, the General Coordinator of Ports and Merchant Marine, shut the port of Acapulco for large ships and the ports of San Blas, Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Chacala in Nayarit for small ships together with Puerto Vallarta and Barra de Navidad in Jalisco, Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan, Zihuatanejo, Puerto Marques and Pie de la Cuesta in Guerrero, and Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca.
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