The
strongest hurricane ever recorded struck land Friday evening as a
Category 5 storm, the fiercest, with sustained winds of 165 mph.
By later that night, it weakened to a Category 4 storm packing winds of 130 mph.
Despite the downgrade, the hurricane remained "extremely dangerous," the National Weather Service warned.
The
hurricane barreled into an anxious nation, lashing the coast with
whistling rain and winds, bending palm trees and turning debris into
small projectiles.
As
the night wore on, Mexican officials expressed cautious optimism as
they waited for Saturday morning to get the full scale of the
destruction.
"The first reports confirm
that the damages have been minor to those corresponding to a hurricane
of this magnitude," President Enrique Peña Nieto said.
"Nonetheless,
it is very important that the population stays in the shelters, the
security forces will be patrolling to protect their homes. I repeat, we
still can't let our guard down."
'The rain is intense'
Patricia landed 55 miles west-northwest of Manzanillo, home to the largest container port on Mexico's Pacific seaboard.
In
Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, tourists and residents alike sought
shelter. It struck land near Cuixmala, a 25,000-acre private estate of
beach, jungle and nature reserves.
"I'm
a little worried," said Carlos Cisneros, an estate worker staffing the
phones Friday night. "The rain is intense and the wind picks up at times
for about five minutes, then subsides. It comes and goes."
Cisneros
said there were mandatory evacuations in nearby communities where
landslides were possible, but he and others at the sprawling estate had
to come to work.
"It's not so bad right now," Cisneros said. "I took a risk."
'Losing everything'
Patricia will be a huge challenge for the nation, said Anthony Perez, a representative of Save the Children in Mexico City.
"We
have these wonderful luxurious tourist destinations, but then there's
half the population that's living in different degrees of poverty," he
said.
"A lot of these homes,
especially in the rural areas, are made of flimsy materials. With the
wind being so strong and then there being so much rain ... many of these
families will probably be losing everything."
The
excessive wind speeds could make it the most dangerous storm in
Mexico's history, according to the head of the Mexican agency that
includes its national weather service.
"The
hurricane is so big and so intense that it has the capacity to pass
over both the Sierra Madres in our country -- that is, through our most
mountainous ranges -- and then exit the country on the other side into
the north part of the Gulf of Mexico and possibly the United States,"
CONAGUA director Robert Ramirez de la Parra said.
The
closest contender to its size might be Hurricane Camille, which
battered the U.S. Gulf Coast in 1969. Patricia appears more powerful
than that storm. It's also stronger than Hurricane Andrew in 1992,
Katrina in 2005 and many others.
Patricia's
intensity is comparable to Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in
2013, the World Meteorological Organization tweeted. More than 6,000 people died in Haiyan, due largely to enormous storm surges that rushed through coastal areas. Haiyan had 195 mph sustained winds when it made landfall.
Dangerous surf, flash floods
In
addition to powerful winds, there are fears of dangerous storm surges
like those that overran the Filipino city of Tacloban during Haiyan.
"Residents
in low-lying areas near the coast in the hurricane warning area should
evacuate immediately, since the storm surge could be catastrophic," the
National Weather Service said.
Rainfall
of 8 to 12 inches -- and possibly 20 inches in some spots -- "could
produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," it said.
It means millions of people are under threat.
Source: CNN
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