Category 5 hurricane is downgraded to tropical storm as winds fall to 50 mph over land, but 400,000 people live in still-vulnerable areas, experts say

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Hurricane Patricia battered the west coast of Mexico on Friday night with torrential rains and winds of 165mph, but without causing any major damage or loss of life.



Hurricane Patricia: fears of deadly landslides in Mexico as storm brings downpours Read more

Around 50,000 people were evacuated and electricity supplies were suspended in preparation for the Category 5 hurricane, amid fears of catastrophic destruction in towns along the country’s Pacific coast.

But Patricia rapidly weakened over land as it collided with the Sierra Madre mountain range. On Saturday morning it was downgraded to a tropical storm as winds dropped to 50mph.

As people prepared for the worst, homes and shop fronts were barricaded, airports closed and thousands evacuated from the popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco. The town escaped any major damage.

“We had pretty steady, fairly heavy rain most of the night, but not a tremendous amount of wind, and there’s really been no damage,” Paul Crist, owner of the Mercurio Hotel one block off the beach in Vallarta, told the Guardian. “We were very, very lucky.

“Everyone at my hotel stayed. We made a bit of a hurricane party out of it, actually, which made for a very long day for me serving tequila shots and beer and cooking on a little electric stove to make sure everyone was fed.”

The agricultural town of Cihuatlán – 45 miles south of where Patricia made landfall – was not as lucky. Strong winds flattened banana crops and houses flooded as the river burst its banks.

Cobian Esparza, who works at a local golf club, said his was among around 150 homes in the town to be flooded as water surged around 2am and rose to higher than a metre indoors.

“We were really scared,” he said. “The floodwater covered everything in just 20 minutes. But it was only material damage; no one was hurt here.”

hurricane patricia tracker The storm’s path.

Patricia gained power rapidly as it approached Mexico, with winds of 200mph at its peak over the Pacific Ocean making it the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the western hemisphere.

At one point before landfall, the winds were strong enough “to get a plane in the air and keep it flying”, according to Claire Nullis, of the World Meteorological Organization.

But Patricia weakened rapidly and was expected to dissipate by Saturday night, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, warned people to stay alert as it became clear that the damage was largely limited to fallen trees and localised flooding. The worst was still to come, he said in a televised message late on Friday night.

Heavy rain was expected to continue across large parts of the north of the country, bringing with it the risk of deadly flash floods on low ground and mudslides in mountainous regions.

Around 400,000 people live in vulnerable areas, according to Mexico’s National Disaster Fund.

The area around the Nevado de Colima volcano in the state of Jalisco is particularly vulnerable, having registered almost 300mm (11.8in) of rain in 24 hours. Ash from the volcano, which has become increasingly active this year, could combine with heavy rainfall to trigger vast mud flows, the government warned.

Hurricanes and tropical storms pummel the coasts of Mexico and Central America between June and December each year.

The most deadly storm in recent years was hurricane Manuel, which battered the Pacific coast in September 2013. It left 123 dead, most as a result of heavy rains, especially in mountainous areas. At least 97 were killed in the poor southern state of Guerrero, including 71 by a mudslide which destroyed nearly half of the village of La Pintada. Seventeen deaths were reported in the popular beach town of Acapulco.

Manuel also destroyed tens of thousands of homes, and 46 rivers burst their banks. The total economic impact was an estimated $4.2bn.

While the major towns and cities escaped the worst of Patricia, there was more disruption in smaller communities.

More than 235,000 homes lost power, mainly in the states of Colima, Nayarit, Jalisco and Michoacán, according to the Federal Electricity Commission. Around half the affected homes were still without electricity at 3pm local time on Saturday, including those in Emiliano Zapata, a small coastal town five miles south of Puerto Vallarta where power lines were struck by falling trees.

Crist, the hotel owner, said he had so far failed to make contact with relatives in small communities further south.



Hurricane Patricia bears down on Mexico's Pacific coast – as seen from space Read more

“I’m now trying to find out if the highway going south is passable so we can take them some water and canned supplies,” he said. “Some of those towns were very hard hit. I know the wind speed when the hurricane made landfall there was tremendous.”

Others were keen to make the most of the storm. Andy Keiffer, a surfing enthusiast and former Silicon Valley entrepreneur who lives in the city of Guadalajara, travelled to the beach town of Chacala, north of Puerto Vallarta, to ride the waves on Saturday.

“We haven’t encountered any substantial rain, there’s no trees down, but there are five-foot waves. There’s nobody here, the whole town is deserted,” Keiffer said.

Patricia was moving north and north-eastward inland and in the US was expected to most likely affect southern Texas. The Mexican states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán and Guerrero face the highest risk of heavy rainfall today, the NHC said.