Storm became a Category 5 hurricane, the highest rating possible, overnight and ‘the winds are enough to get a plane in the air and keep it flying’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Hurricane Patricia has hit Mexico’s Pacific coast after strengthening into a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm, having grown at an “incredible rate” in the past 12 hours.

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

“Patricia is now the strongest ever hurricane to hit the eastern north Pacific region,” WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told a UN briefing in Geneva, citing an update from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

“This is really, really, really strong. It’s comparable with Typhoon Haiyan which hit the Philippines with such devastating effect a couple of years ago.”

Haiyan killed more than 6,300 people and wiped out or damaged practically everything in its path as it swept ashore on 8 November 2013, destroying about 90% of the city of Tacloban in Leyte province.

Patricia, which became a hurricane overnight, had maximum sustained winds of about 200 mph (325kph) as it moved toward the north-north-west at 10mph (16kph).

“The winds are enough to get a plane in the air and keep it flying,” Nullis said.



The storm, which is a Category 5, the highest rating possible, had been expected to weaken somewhat before making landfall in the hurricane warning area by Friday afternoon or evening, the Miami-based hurricane center said earlier.

The United States government issued an advisory urging its nationals to steer clear of beaches and rough seas and to take shelter as instructed by Mexican officials.

The interior minister, Miguel Ángel Osorio, told Mexico’s Radio Formula on Friday morning that officials are especially worried about the safety of people in the Puerto Vallarta, in Jalisco state, and in the nearby community of Bahía de Banderas, in Nayarit state.

“We need people to understand the magnitude of the hurricane, it is a devastating hurricane, the biggest one ever registered.”

Osorio added that the government has deployed soldiers and federal police agents to help out, but has provided no numbers. Mexican emergency officials began to prepare shelters and warned people in the states of Colima, Jalisco and Michoacán to get ready for torrential rainfalls.

Some businesses in Puerto Vallarta had begun boarding and taping up windows late on Thursday as a precaution, while several domestic flights had been delayed. Only a few people have been seen going to shelters in the tourist resort, where 14 schools and other buildings have been set up to house evacuees.

None of the major installations of Mexican state oil giant Pemex lie in the projected path of the storm.



Reuters and the Associated Press in Puerto Vallarta.