Mexico at risk of flash floods and mudslides in wake of hurricane Patricia

As many as 150 homes were flooded in the riverside town of Cihuatlán, Jalisco.

Hurricane Patricia battered the west coast of Mexico on Friday night with torrential rains and winds of 165mph, but without causing any major damage or loss of life.

Around 50,000 people were evacuated and electricity supplies were suspended in preparation for the Category 5 hurricane, amid fears of catastrophic destruction in towns along the country’s Pacific coast.

But Patricia rapidly weakened over land as it collided with the Sierra Madre mountain range. On Saturday morning it was downgraded to a tropical storm as winds dropped to 50mph.

As people prepared for the worst, homes and shop fronts were barricaded, airports closed and thousands evacuated from the popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco. The town escaped any major damage.

Hurricane Patricia caused some damage in coastal towns but there were no casualties.

“We had pretty steady, fairly heavy rain most of the night, but not a tremendous amount of wind, and there’s really been no damage,” Paul Crist, owner of the Mercurio Hotel one block off the beach in Vallarta, told the Guardian. “We were very, very lucky…

Click here to read this article by Nina Lakhani and myself for the Guardian.