Hurricane Patricia Plows Into Mexico

by JASmius



That's the bad news; the good news is that it didn't score a direct hit on any major population center:

Patricia, one of the strongest ever hurricanes, crashed into western Mexico with rain and winds of up to 165 mph, hammering coastal areas but skirting major cities and causing less damage than feared.

Mowing down trees, flooding streets and battering buildings, Hurricane Patricia plowed into Mexico as a Category-5 storm on Friday evening before grinding inland. It rapidly lost power in the mountains that rise up along the Pacific coast and was downgraded to a tropical storm by Saturday morning.

So far, it appeared that major damage had been averted because the powerful storm did not hit large population centers.

Around fifteen thousand tourists had been hurriedly evacuated from the beach resort of Puerto Vallarta as people scrambled to get away from the advancing hurricane, whose massive swirl over Mexico could be seen clearly from space.

"It sparked chaos here, it ruined a lot of things, took down the roof, lots of trees. Things are in a bad state where we work," said Domingo Hernandez, a hotel worker in the resort of Barra de Navidad near to the major port of Manzanillo.

Thousands of residents and tourists ended up in improvised shelters, but there were no early reports of fatalities and many felt they had escaped lightly.

The storm hit land near the area of Cuixmala, home to one of Mexico's most exclusive getaways, at 6:15 p.m. (2315 GMT) on Friday, the U.S National Hurricane Center said. [emphasis added]

The biggest hurricane in recorded history, and nobody died in it.  That has to be seen as a major miracle, regardless of the degree of preparation undertaken by Mexican authorities.

But has anybody heard from the Love Boat.....?