Strongest hurricane on record heads for Mexico

Luke Skywalker · Oct 23, 2015

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[h=4]Strongest hurricane on record heads for Mexico[/h]Tens of thousands of people are being evacuated from Mexico's Pacific coast Friday as the storm bore down on the popular tourist area of Puerto Vallarta.

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With maximum sustained winds of 200 mph, forecasters said hurricane Patricia will make landfall on Mexico's Pacific Coast Friday. Forecasters also warn that the monster Category 5 storm could be catastrophic.

A handout picture released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Oct.23 shows a rainbow colored image of Hurricane Patricia as it approaches the coastline of Mexico from the Eastern Pacific.(Photo: NOAA)

MEXICO CITY —*Tens of thousands of people were being*evacuated Friday from Mexico's Pacific coast as the*strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere*bore down on the the popular tourist area packing sustained winds of 200 mph.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center*predicted*the Category 5 Hurricane Patricia would make a “potentially catastrophic landfall” in southwestern Mexico later in the day.
The center described the storm as the most*powerful ever recorded in the eastern Pacific or Atlantic basins.*It warned of powerful winds and*torrential rain that could bring life-threatening flash flooding*and dangerous, destructive storm surge.
Roberto Ramirez, director of*Mexico's National Water Commission, said Hurricane Patricia is powerful enough to lift up automobiles and destroy homes*not sturdily built with cement and steel. The storm*will also*be able to drag people caught outside when it strikes.*Those on the coast will be in the most danger, especially people living in the state of Jalisco, which has a population of more than 7.3 million, he said.
At 8 a.m., Hurricane Patricia*was*145 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico,*moving*to the north-northwest at 12 mph, the hurricane center*said. The storm*is expected to remain an extremely*dangerous Category 5 hurricane through landfall, the agency said.
A total of 50,000 people were expected to be evacuated ahead of the storm,*according to civil protection agencies in the three Mexican states of Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit, Vallarta Daily reported. Those regions house the port city of Manzanillo and the town of*Puerto Vallarta, a resort town with a*large expatriate community from*the U.S. and*Canada.
STORM TRACKER:*Track the forecast path of Hurricane Patricia
According to the 2010 census, there are more than*650,000 inhabitants in Colima state, more than 161,000 in Manzanillo and*more than 255,000 in the Puerto Vallarta municipality.
Mexican officials declared a state of emergency in dozens of coastal towns, including Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta, and ordered schools closed Friday, the Associated Press reported.*The city of Puerto Vallarta established 18 shelter locations to house evacuees, and some businesses began*boarding and taping up windows late*Thursday.

People preparing for the arrival of hurricane Patricia board up the windows of a seaside business in the Pacific resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Oct. 22, 2015.*(Photo: Cesar Rodriguez, AP)

Patricia is expected to make landfall near an area of beach towns known as the Costa Alegre between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta, where locals says there's been an eery calm.
"It's a beautiful morning in my neighborhood," said*Jane Gorby, a California native*who has lived for 15 years in the town of La Manzanilla. She said*the severity of the pending storm snuck up on residents in a region used to hurricanes, and left them scrambling for a potentially unprecedented event.
"People were complacent, blasé, cavalier, but there's never been a storm like this before," Gorby says. "It's been a (Category)*1, 2, 3, 4. Now I wake up and it's a 5."
Gorby, like most residents, planned to ride out the storm in La Manzanilla, last hit hard by Hurricane Jova in 2011.*"I have tequila. I have cat food. I have things to calm my nerves," she said. "I don't know how you prepare for something like this."
At a Wal-Mart in Manzanillo, shoppers filled carts with non-perishables as a steady rain fell outside.*Veronica Cabrera, shopping with her young son, said the town tends to flood easily with many small streams overflowing their banks, AP reported. She said she had taped her windows at home to prevent them from shattering.
Alejandra Rodriguez, shopping with her brother and mother, was buying 10 liters of milk, a large jug of water and items like tuna and canned ham that do not require refrigeration or cooking. The family already blocked the bottoms of the doors at their home to keep water from entering.*Manzanillo’s “main street really floods and cuts access to a lot of other streets. It ends up like an island,” Rodriguez said.
The U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization said in a tweet that Patricia was comparable in intensity to*Typhoon Haiyan. That storm left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in the Philippines two years ago.
While Hurricane Patricia*should weaken rapidly over the mountainous terrain of Mexico, its remnants will continue to produce heavy rain in central parts of the country and into Texas over the weekend.
Rice reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Doug Stanglin in McLean, Va.
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Strongest hurricane on record heads for Mexico

Luke Skywalker

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