HURRICANE PATRICIA UPDATES Breaking News Patricia Updates
Update: 10:00 PM 23 Oct. 2015: Thousands of #Patricia evacuees, refugees
Hurricane Patricia's winds continue to range from 165 to 185 mph as the monster treks inland to less developed, more vulnerable communities. According to initial reports after Hurricane Patricia made landfall, Manzanillo has been hardest hit so far, with the storm's eye passing through it. Webcam shots are beginning to trickle in, showing the violent storm's impact.
About half of the 15,000 tourists in Hurricane Patricia's path were evacuated to Guadalajara by the time the storm hit. About 10,000 others were evacuated from the Jalisco coast.
When Jesus Anguino Salazar arrived Thursday at a Puerto Vallarta hotel, employees told him that he wasn't a guest but instead, a refugee, according to the LA Times. He therefore headed to a bus station Friday to go back to Guadalajara, about 125 miles east of Puerto Vallarta.
"I got a bus ticket but everything was full, and I had to wait in a really long line, " he told a Mexican newspaper. When finally on a bus, he said that all the passengers could talk about was the storm and what it might do to their homes.
[Hurricane Patricia Refugees Get ‘Important Advisory’ Instructions]
Most electricity service has been suspended as a precaution. Residents have bene warned that they could expect to be without power at least 24 hours.
Update: 6:30 pm CST 23 Oct. 2015: Search and Rescue teams readying
"If there were a Category 6 for hurricanes, this would be a category six," said Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. "It's a hurricane that hasn't been seen before, not just in Mexico, not just in the United States. It has wind speeds that are greater than the most intense, strongest hurricanes ever recorded on the planet."
Mexican authorities have received reports of toppled trees and lampposts, flooding and landslides after powerful Hurricane Patricia made landfall in a relatively unpopulated stretch of Pacific coast. Authorities said air transport was being readied to perform search and rescue operations in the morning.
Remarkable raw videos from Mazanillo and Tencatito show extremely hazardous conditions. [Watch here.]
Patricia is heading over a mountainous region dotted with isolated hamlets at risk of mudslides and flash floods.
President Nieto said the entirety of Mexico's federal government was responding to the storm, working with state and local officials to coordinate evacuations and position emergency personnel to respond. He told Mexicans there will difficult days ahead and urged them to follow local authorities' instructions.
At 6:15 p.m. local time Friday, Category 5 Hurricane Patricia made landfall along the coast of southwestern Mexico in the Jalisco communities of El Estrecho, La Manzanilla and Melaque about 88 kilometers west-northwest of Manzanillo, and Colima - about 200 kilometers south of Puerto Vallarta. There are still no reports of conditions in fishing communities where the storm made landfall except that flooding is occuring.
Patricia weakened to 165 mph at landfall, maintaining its Category 5 strength and unleashing destructive winds, torrents of rain, and a devastating storm surge before moving inland. An NHC forecaster said the hurricane would likely continue moving north-northeast across western and northern Mexico through tomorrow. It should weaken rapidly over the mountains and dissipate tomorrow.
The Mexican weather service forecast has warned residents of intense rain in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán over the next three hours and winds gusting to over 62 mph in the states of Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán. Waves from 15 to 24 feet are forecast in the same three states.
NASA picture of Hurricane Patricia from space:
Update: 1:45 pm PST 23 Oct. 2015
Hurricane Patricia has now peaked at 8.3 on an 8.0 intensity scale. "Still, calling Patricia a Category 5 underestimates just how ferocious this storm is," Slate reports.
Patricia is heading for a landfall between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s southwest coast, expecting to arrive between 5:00 and 6:00 pm Friday. It is threatening to surpass a 1959 hurricane that ranks deadliest in that part of the Pacific. Upon landfall, Hurricane Patricia is expected to trigger up to 40 feet waves and as if it is not catastrophic enough, hurl powerhouse tornadoes in the area.
Moving inland, Patricia is expected to produce up to two feet of rain in Mexico’s coastal mountain range, creating flooding and mudslide risks over a vast area, including Guadalajara, the country’s second-largest city.
Over the past 30 hours, Patricia’s central pressure has fallen 114 millibars, from 994 to 880, possibly beating the world’s record for fastest intensification.
As Hurricane Patricia nears land, it has not changed notably in strength. It is moving 12 miles per hour. After hitting land, it is expected to move more quickly through Mexico. It's heavy rain and flooding has begun.
Other damage reports are already coming in from Manzanillo.
Update: 11:45 am PST 23 Oct. 2015
Hurricane Patricia has begun hurling angry waves and winds at Mexico's coast, as a raw video captured.
A military personnel convoy is heading south to assist as first responders to what is predicted to be a humanitarion catastrophe involving millions of people.
The latest projected path has been issued as the following map designates:
Hurricane Patricia refugees have been issued an advisory about their new status. (See: Hurricane Patricia Refugees Get ‘IMPORTANT ADVISORY’ Instructions)
As the storm makes landfall, the reader can imagine destruction depending on the force at that time by using the following graphics:
Update: 9:30 am PST 23 Oct. 2015
Mexicans have been warned shocking news that Hurricane Patricia has potential to lift cars and homes.
Conagua director says the phenomenon has the strength to lift cars and homes. He announced in a press conference that Playa Perula is the area most at risk, and to make preparations.
"We don't want anyone outside after 2 p.m. Hurricane Patricia will be able to lift cars," the Civil Guard reports.
Mexicans in Patricia's path who are still at home have been told to cut power, gas and water at their homes to prevent adding to the pending humanitarian catastrophe.
Watch on Before It's News: Hurricane Patricia: Super Storm Secrets
Update: 8:45 am 23 Oct. 2015
Hurricane Patricia became the strongest storm ever measured on the planet early Friday, threatening 205 mph winds at landfall and to trigger deadly 40-foot waves, "life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides" along with widespread power outages, experts say. Waterspouts, tornadoes and whirlpools near the hurricane at landfall are likely. Disastrous conditions will probably begin at noon Friday.
Because of recent rains that softened the ground, the area could register mudslides, landslides, overflowing rivers and streams and damages in roads and road sections, as well as flooding in low saturation areas and drains in urban sites.
Several million residents on Mexico's southern west coast were told to rapidly prepare for the "worst-case scenario" as powerhouse Patricia raced toward them late Friday afternoon or early evening.
With 215 mph maximum sustained winds early Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) described Patricia as the "strongest hurricane on record" in the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific Basins. CONAGUA, Mexico's national water commission, predicted waves up to 39 feet at landfall. In August, Dupré reported a powerhouse El Nino amid the hottest ocean waters in recorded history was brewing catastrophic conditions, requiring early preparations.
Patricia's power is comparable to Typhoon Haiyan, that left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in the Philippines two years ago, according to the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization.
At 4:00pm CDT, the hurricane was about 400 kilometers south of Manzanillo, moving west-northwest at 20 km/h. AccuWeather forecasters narrowed Hurricane Patricia’s landfall to just northwest of the city of Manzanillo in Colima Thursday, the NHC had reported that Pattricia would weaken at landfall. Early Friday, however, it revised that, reporting that some strengthening is forecast for tonight when it hits.
Original Story
Category 5 Hurricane Patricia became a "potentially catastrophic hurricane" in the Pacific Ocean Thursday, according to forecasters. Government officials scrambled to warn the public to rapidly prepare for the dangerous super storm, intensified over the hottest water in recorded history from a little tropical storm into a monster within 24 hours, threatening life and property.
"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion today," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said Thursday night after Hurricane Patirica quickly grew from a 65MPH tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane, causing authorities to scramble in attempt to make people safe.
Satellite images indicate that maximum sustained winds increased to 200 mph with higher gusts, the NHC reported. "Some fluctuations in intensity are possible today, but Patricia is expected to remain an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane through landfall," the center reported early Friday morning.
Patricia is expected to land near Punta San Telmo, Baja California Sur late Friday. Hurricane warnings are in effect on Mexico's Pacific Coast from San Blas to Punta San Telmo, including resort cities Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. People in the most danger are those on the coast, especially in the state of Jalisco.
Millions in harm's way
According to the 2010 census, more than 7.3 million inhabitants are in Jalisco state; more than 255,000 in Puerto Vallarta municipality; more than 650,000 in Colima state, and more than 161,000 in Manzanillo.
Not only Patricia's expected deadly winds have Mexicans preparing for the worst. Destructive waves, heavy rain and thus landslides are probable, only a month after neighboring Guatemala's catastrophic rain storm and mudslides buried hundreds alive. Up to 20 inches of rain has been predicted for Mexican states Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero through Saturday, the NHC said.
Manzanillo’s “main street really floods and cuts access to a lot of other streets. It ends up like an island,” explained a resident Alejandra Rodriguez.
Patricia is the only second category 5 hurricane to hit the entire Pacific coast since full recordkeeping began in 1949. A storm struck late October 1959 near Manzanillo, killing an estimated 1,800 people — 800 from mudslides alone. A category 5 damage averages over five billion dollars, unimaginable for Americans poor neighbors to the south.
Forecast models indicate that after the storm breaks over land, its tropical moisture will likely combine with and contribute to heavy rainfall all the way to Texas. Texas is already soaked independently of the hurricane, according to center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen. Further land erosion along the Gulf of Mexico is also predicted.
“It’s only going to make a bad situation worse,” he said. (See the module of possible paths here.)
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