PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico — Hurricane Patricia pushed inland over a mountainous region of small hamlets in western Mexico early Saturday, weakening from its record-breaking strength but still powerful as it dumped torrential rains that authorities warned could cause deadly floods and mudslides.
Patricia, which peaked as the strongest hurricane on record in the Western Hemisphere, made landfall Friday on a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 5 storm, avoiding direct hits on the resort city of Puerto Vallarta and major port city of Manzanillo.
There were early reports of some flooding and landslides, but no word of fatalities or major damage as the storm moved over inland mountains overnight.
Television news reports from the coast showed toppled trees and lampposts, and inundated streets. 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.”
Patricia weakened to a Category 2 hurricane early Saturday with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph) and was expected to dissipate over Mexico’s inland mountains, becoming a tropical storm later in the day. Its center was about 135 miles (215 kilometers) southwest of Zacatecas, Mexico. — AP
