That is not to say the damage is not severe. While the hurricane spared the densely populated centers of Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, it appears to have done the most damage to villages between the two cities. For many in these impoverished communities, it could take much time to recover from even moderate damage.

The government has not come up with a total for how much the recovery will cost, but a drive through the affected areas paints a clear enough picture: mangled telephone wires; shards of trees and brush and palm blanketing the street; all manner of street signs, from 30-foot-tall billboards to traffic signs, upended.

It was a scene repeated up and down the coast, as nervous residents and frazzled tourists awoke to flooded roads and widespread power failures. Rescue workers were sent up and down the western coast to assess the damage.

Luis Felipe Puente, the director of Mexico’s civil protection agency, confirmed Saturday that there were no reports of deaths. In a phone interview as he was traveling to Manzanillo to begin a tour of the hardest-hit areas along the coast, he said his reports included some from remote mountain villages where there had been fears of mudslides.

One reason there were apparently no fatalities was that people paid attention to warnings. Schools shut down, stores and businesses closed and people heeded the advisories to stay indoors or move to shelters. When trees and lampposts fell, there was nobody outside who could be hurt. “The final result is a recognition that everybody paid attention,” Mr. Puente said.

He also noted that the storm lost much of its force when it made landfall and changed its path away from heavily populated areas.