David Agren and Doyle Rice

USA TODAY

MONTERREY, Mexico — Mexico's Pacific coast braced for a terrifying night Friday as one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere made landfall in a popular tourist area, packing winds of 165 mph.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in advance of the storm, which barreled toward the country with sustained winds of 200 mph for much of the day before speeds decreased ahead of its landfall 55 miles west-northwest of Manzanillo in the evening. The U.S. National Hurricane Center had warned the Category 5 storm could be "potentially catastrophic."

Earlier in the day, the center described the storm as the most powerful ever recorded in the eastern Pacific or Atlantic basins. It said powerful winds and torrential rain will bring life-threatening flash flooding and dangerous, destructive storm surge.

Mexico responds well to crises, but planning ahead is another matter

Patricia, while still potentially deadly, falls short of the highest winds ever recorded at landfall. Typhoon Haiyan had winds of 195 mph as it slammed into the Philippines in November 2013, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or missing, primarily from its massive 15- to 19-foot storm surge.

"The hardest part is over," Jalisco state Gov. Aristóteles Sandoval told citizens seeking shelter in Puerto Vallarta after Patricia made landfall to the south of the resort city. "We're expecting more intense rains ... but the most delicate part is over."

Thousands of Mexicans have sought shelter in schools, public buildings and with relatives as the storm struck. The federal government expected to distribute 390,000 tons of food in four states.

Sandoval also announced an airbridge for evacuations, starting Saturday. Mexico's main airlines and aircraft from the Federal Police and armed forced will ferry out stranded individuals free of charge, according to the Communications and Transportation Secretariat.

Earlier in the evening, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said he didn't want to create panic in the western states of Jalisco, Colima and Nayarit that were in Patricia's path, but stressed it was important for people there to understand the magnitude of the historic storm.

During a radio interview, Nieto said Patricia had surpassed the constraints of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, which defines a top-rated Category 5 storm as having wind speeds higher than 157 mph.

"If there were a Category 6 for hurricanes, this would be a category six," he said. "It's a hurricane that hasn't been seen before, not just in Mexico, not just in the United States. It has wind speeds that are greater than the most intense, strongest hurricanes ever recorded on the planet."

Nieto said the entirety of the federal government was responding to the storm, working with state and local officials to coordinate evacuations and position emergency personnel to respond. He told Mexicans there will difficult days ahead and urged them to follow the instructions of local authorities.

Patricia's 200-mph winds will turn planes, vehicles into airborne missiles

"Patricia is one of the strongest tropical cyclones globally ever observed based on lowest central pressure and maximum surface (and flight level) wind speed since the dawn of aviation-based reconnaissance in the 1940s," said WeatherBell meteorologist Ryan Maue.

Patricia's winds intensified a whopping 109 mph during Thursday, rising from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane by that evening. It was the fastest intensification ever recorded in the eastern Pacific Ocean, according to meteorologist Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University.

Roberto Ramirez, director of Mexico's National Water Commission, said Hurricane Patricia's 200-mph winds were powerful enough to lift up automobiles and destroy homes not sturdily built with cement and steel. The storm will also be able to drag people caught outside when it strikes. Those on the coast will be in the most danger, especially people living in the state of Jalisco, which has a population of more than 7.3 million, he said.

In a Category 5 hurricane, a high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse, according to the hurricane center. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months, and most of the area will be uninhabitable for that same period of time.

Ahead of the storm, tens of thousands of people were evacuated from the area in the path of the storm, particularly in the three Mexican states of Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit. Those regions house the port city of Manzanillo and the town of Puerto Vallarta, a resort town with a large expatriate community from the U.S. and Canada.

Mexican officials also declared a state of emergency in dozens of coastal towns, including Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta. More than 400 temporary shelters were opened throughout the country for residents fleeing coastal and low-lying areas.

Storm surge, torrential rain, landslides also major threats from Patricia

STORM TRACKER: Track the forecast path of Hurricane Patricia

According to the 2010 census, there are more than 650,000 inhabitants in Colima state, more than 161,000 in Manzanillo and more than 255,000 in the Puerto Vallarta municipality.

Residents reinforced homes with sandbags and shop windows with boards and tape, and hotels rolled up beachfront restaurants. The airport was closed to all flights and all but deserted, but lines formed at a bus station by people anxious to buy tickets to Guadalajara and other inland destinations.

Fire trucks and ambulances rolled through the streets, sirens blaring, as emergency workers warned people in both Spanish and English to evacuate.

Puerto Vallarta and the neighboring Riviera Nayarit attract thousands of tourists throughout the year, but airlines suspended service with the storm approaching. The Jalisco state government scrambled a fleet of 30 buses to take tourists from the coast to Guadalajara, a five-hour ride inland.

"We are in a very complicated situation, there is an extremely dangerous hurricane about to make impact and we don't need to put more lives at risk," said José María Tapia of Mexico's civil defense system. "(The airports) will be open only to evacuate as many Mexican and foreign tourists that are in that area."

Tapia said his office is coordinating with the national military, including air, sea and land units, to clear traffic from all routes leading to the waterfront region to help evacuation efforts and allow emergency to enter it. He said foreigners trying to locate their loved ones should work through their consulates in Mexico.

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement calling on Americans to monitor emergency advisories and stay away from the beaches. "As Hurricane Patricia moves inland, it will continue to produce heavy rainfall, wind and dangerous conditions," the statement said. "Persons located inland in the path of Hurricane Patricia should take appropriate measures to ensure their safety, particularly those located in areas prone to flooding or mudslides."

Patricia tops list of world's strongest storms

Locals in coastal areas said Friday morning brought an eerie calm before the storm. "It's a beautiful morning in my neighborhood," said Jane Gorby, a California native who has lived for 15 years in the town of La Manzanilla. She said the severity of the pending storm snuck up on residents in a region used to hurricanes, and left them scrambling for a potentially unprecedented event.

"People were complacent, blasé, cavalier, but there's never been a storm like this before," Gorby said. "It's been a (Category) 1, 2, 3, 4. Now I wake up and it's a 5."

Gorby, like most residents, planned to ride out the storm in La Manzanilla, last hit hard by Hurricane Jova in 2011. "I have tequila. I have cat food. I have things to calm my nerves," she said. "I don't know how you prepare for something like this."

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The fast approach of Hurricane Patricia left thousands of tourists with no other option but to hunker down. Officials in Nayarit state, to the north of Puerto Vallarta, said "the majority" of tourists were evacuated to shelters further inland.

However, that didn't include Addie Hinson and her husband, who were visiting a beach resort near Puerto Vallarta to celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary. She said hotel officials originally told them they would be evacuated, but they were later told that nearby shelters were already filled up, forcing the 900 guests at the hotel to stay put.

Hinson, 42, a registered nurse from Ames, Iowa, said hotel staff boarded up many ocean-facing windows, but they only put a mattress and sofa against the window of her sixth-floor room. Three other couples from Iowa joined them on the trip, so Hinson said they were all going to ride out the storm in one of their rooms on the second floor of the hotel.

"We are all just trying to stick together," she wrote in an email Friday. "I'm nervous, but I have beer for that!"

Hinson said the situation is unfortunately becoming a habit for her and her husband. The last time they visited Puerto Vallarta in 2002, Hurricane Kenna slammed into the coast just a few miles north of them. "I think we won't be returning here again anytime soon considering our track record at this point," Hinson said.

Last year, powerful Hurricane Odile slammed into the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, killing 11 people. Odile was the most intense landfalling hurricane in the Baja since 1970. In 2011, Jova made landfall as a 100 mph Category 2 hurricane in Jalisco, Mexico, killing nine people.

While Hurricane Patricia should weaken rapidly over the mountainous terrain of Mexico, its remnants will continue to produce heavy rain in central parts of the country and into Texas over the weekend.

Rice reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Doug Stanglin in McLean, Va.

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CATEGORIZING POTENTIAL HURRICANE DAMAGE

Extent of calculated damage to coastal homes from hurricane winds, according to the Saffir-Sampson scale:

NORMAL CONDITIONS

CATEGORY 1 (MINIMAL)

CATEGORY 2 (MODERATE)

CATEGORY 3 (EXTENSIVE)

CATEGORY 4 (EXTREME)

CATEGORY 5 (CATASTROPHIC)