{"id":20813,"date":"2015-10-24T06:09:24","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T06:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/hurricane-patricia-risk-of-floods-and-landslides\/"},"modified":"2015-10-24T06:08:36","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T06:08:36","slug":"hurricane-patricia-risk-of-floods-and-landslides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/hurricane-patricia-risk-of-floods-and-landslides\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Patricia: Risk of floods and landslides"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

{ {{Mexico’s president has warned that Hurricane Patricia still poses a threat of floods and landslides as it brings heavy rain to parts of the country.}} }<\/p>\n

President Enrique Pena Nieto said Patricia – the strongest storm recorded in the Americas – had so far caused less damage than feared.<\/p>\n

The US National Hurricane Centre said the hurricane hit as a Category Five storm – the highest classification.<\/p>\n

It is now “rapidly weakening” over Mexico, the centre said.<\/p>\n

The storm touched down in western Mexico on Friday, bringing destructive winds and rain, but heavy damage appears to have been avoided.<\/p>\n

The NHC said winds had decreased to 120 km\/h (75 mph) as Patricia rapidly weakened over land, making it a Category One storm, and the centre forecasts that it will dissipate by Saturday night.<\/p>\n

While still over the ocean, Patricia had winds of 325 km\/h (200 mph) at its peak, which made it the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Western hemisphere.<\/p>\n

Thousands of residents and tourists on Mexico’s Pacific coast were evacuated and moved inland.<\/p>\n

Patricia is now moving north-northeastward inland over northern Mexico.<\/p>\n

The states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan, and Guerrero are in particular danger from the high rainfall expected on Saturday, the centre says.<\/p>\n

Total rainfall of 20-30cm (8 to 12 inches) – with isolated maximum amounts of 50cm (20 inches) – is “likely to produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides,” it added.<\/p>\n

“The first reports confirm that the damage has been smaller than that corresponding to a hurricane of this magnitude,” Mr Pena Nieto said in a televised address.<\/p>\n

Mexican federal police said only “minor landslides and fallen trees” had so far been reported in Colima.<\/p>\n

But the government has warned that ash from the Colima volcano, which has become increasingly active this year, could combine with heavy rainfall to trigger huge mudflows.<\/p>\n

Some 400,000 people live in vulnerable areas, according to Mexico’s National Disaster Fund.<\/p>\n

Patricia reached land in the Cuixmala area of the western Jalisco state, some 85km (55 miles) from the port city of Manzanillo.<\/p>\n

The US National Hurricane Centre said Patricia hit the coast with winds of 265km\/h (165mph).<\/p>\n

At one point before landfall, the hurricane’s winds had been strong enough “to get a plane in the air and keep it flying”, World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman Claire Nullis said.<\/p>\n

Video filmed in the port city of Manzanillo shortly before the hurricane struck showed trees bending in severe wind.<\/p>\n

While sheltering with his family in Manzanillo, Jacob Lozano Salazar told the BBC:
\n“We’re all safe but it’s really ugly here on the coast.”
\nResidents had stocked up on food and other supplies, while shop owners boarded up windows.
\n{{
\nBBC Earth explains: What is a hurricane?}}<\/p>\n

Jalisco is home to the resort town of Puerto Vallarta, which appeared to have escaped the worst of the storm.<\/p>\n

Police patrols in the resort urged people to leave the shorefront for safer areas at least three blocks inland, while loudspeakers ordered hotel residents to evacuate.<\/p>\n

The town’s airport, along with two others in the path of the storm, were closed.<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{ {{Mexico’s president has warned that Hurricane Patricia still poses a threat of floods and landslides as it brings heavy rain to parts of the country.}} }<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000069815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-20813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000069815,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20813.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20813.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20813.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20813.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20813.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20813.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000069815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20813"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=20813"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=20813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}