Six reported dead in Mexico in the wake of Hurricane Patricia
Hurricane Patricia caused minor landslides on the highway from Guadalajara to Manzanillo.
Mexico escaped with minimal loss of life as Patricia, the strongest hurricane ever recorded, slammed into its Pacific coastline last Friday night.
Although there were initially no reports of any casualties, EFE stated on Sunday that two people were killed by a falling tree in the town of Tapalpa in the western state of Jalisco on Friday night.
The victims, who had been camping in the forest, were named as Andrea Fabiola Aldrete, 45, from Argentina, and María del Carmen San Miguel, 61, from Coahuila in northern Mexico.
That afternoon another four people were killed in a traffic accident on the highway between Guadalajara and Colima city, the respective state capitals of Jalisco and Colima.
The local authorities did not attribute that crash directly to Patricia but it did happen in an area ravaged by strong winds and 25 hours of rain that may have contributed to the accident…
Click here to read this article in full at Latin Correspondent.
I went on The World with Marco Werman on BBC World Service/PRI radio yesterday to discuss the impact of Hurricane Patricia. Click here to listen (skip forward to six minutes in).
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.
Hurricane Patricia caused flooding and brought down trees but did little serious damage.
Hurricane Patricia hit Mexico’s Pacific coast on Friday night, bringing downpours, surging seas and cyclonic winds, but has since weakened, with the main concern moving to fears of landslides caused by heavy rain.
Four hours after making landfall in a relatively unpopulated stretch of Pacific coast, Patricia was downgraded to a category four hurricane and then to a category two storm.
The hurricane was now a category one storm, with winds weakening to about 75 mph (120 kph) and was centred about 50 miles (80km) south-southwest of Zacatecas, Mexico. Heavy rain continue to fall.
It moved past Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-biggest metropolis, late on Friday night, with strong winds and heavy rain bringing trees down and causing flash flooding across the city…
Click here to read this report by Nina Lakhani and myself at the Guardian.
.@DuncanTucker talks about how #HurricanePatricia will impact on coastal resorts in Mexico #SNT https://t.co/zPC5JZh8sc
— Sky News Tonight (@SkyNewsTonight) October 23, 2015
The Tequila Files 