Only minor damage reported after Patricia
Hurricane now a tropical depression near Zacatecas
The effects of Hurricane Patricia, the strongest
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huricane in history, were felt across three Mexican states yesterday evening, leaving only minor damage and no loss of life, according to reports this morning.
The Category-5 storm made landfall at shortly after 6:00pm in the Bays of Tenacatita, Cuestecomate and Navidad in Jalisco, about 80 kilometers west-northwest of Manzanillo, Colima.
The eye of the storm battered the fishing villages and small towns of Melaque, El Estrecho and La Manzanilla with steady winds of 305 km/h and gusts up to 380.
“The waves were coming in to the hotel,” a night watchman at a hotel in Barra de Navidad told the Associated Press. Domingo Hernández said there were downed trees and utility poles everywhere in town.
Trees were knocked down in much of the region, and there was some flooding and mudslides, but little else had been reported in the way of damage as of noon today.
Strong winds and torrential rain continued in the area until about 9:00pm last night when the impact of the storm began to wane as it moved inland.
Nearly 10,000 people took refuge in emergency shelters while the same number of tourists were evacuated from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara.
The National Water Commission, Conagua, reported this morning that some areas recorded accumulated rainfall of nearly 400 millimeters over a 24-hour period ending at 3:00 this morning.
Nevado de Colima in Jalisco saw 383 millimeters, Sierra Manantlán, Colima, 297 and Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, 261.
Sixteen hours after the monster hurricane struck the coast, it was downgraded by the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) to a tropical depression as it passed 155 kilometers northeast of the city of Zacatecas, with winds of just 55 km/h.
But an NHC forecaster warned that tropical storm-force gusts were still possible near the center of the storm, especially at higher elevations as it moved across central and northeastern Mexico.
The National Meteorological Service forecast intense rain with accumulations reaching 75 to 150 millimeters in Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas in a bulletin at 10:45am today.
