Hurricane Patricia made landfall near Manzanillo, Colima state, Mexico on Friday.(Photo: Jonathan Levinson, AFP/Getty Images)
MONTERREY, Mexico — Hurricane Patricia, billed as the strongest storm on record before<span style="color: Red;">*</span>it made landfall, was rapidly weakening<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on Saturday after apparently leaving behind less damage than<span style="color: Red;">*</span>had been feared by the huge storm, Mexico's president said.
As of early Saturday, the hurricane's maximum sustained winds had decreased to near 75 mph, down from the Category 5 winds of 200 mph on Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported. The decreased winds mean the hurricane, which made landfall in Mexico on Friday night, is now a Category 1 storm.
There were early reports of some flooding and landslides, but no word of fatalities or major damage as the storm pushed across inland mountains and bypassing the metropolis of Guadalajara overnight. Milenio TV carried footage of cars and buses being swept by floodwaters in the state of Jalisco.
“The first reports confirm that the damage has been less than those expected from a hurricane of this magnitude,” President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a taped address late Friday. He added, however, that “we cannot yet let our guard down.”
STORM TRACKER: Track the forecast path of Hurricane Patricia
Later Saturday morning, Patricia is forecast to be a tropical storm; in the afternoon, it is expected to be a tropical depression.
The storm made landfall on Friday 55 miles west-northwest of Manzanillo, with winds at about 165 mph.Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in advance of the storm, which had barreled toward the country with sustained winds of 200 mph for much of the day.
In the beach town of Barra de Navidad, just north of Manzanillo and close to where Hurricane Patricia made landfall, hotel manager Damian Sánchez says the storm blew off roofs, toppled trees and power lines and provoked flooding in the streets.
"It was something very strong," he said, adding the winds lasted for two hours and seemed stronger than the last big storm: Hurricane Jova in 2011. "A lot of people have left town."
Some 50,000 residents of the small state of Colima, which includes Manzanillo, were staying in 1,600 shelters, the newspaper
Reforma reported. Nayarit state, north of Puerto Vallarta, opened 400 shelters and evacuated tourists and residents of coastal areas inland.
"The risks surrounding Hurricane Patricia continue being high. We must not lower our guard," Interior Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong tweeted several hours after the storm made landfall.
Estepa reported from Washington, D.C.
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