MEXICO-STORM/PATRICIA-SHELTER Mexicans and tourists head to shelters as powerful Hurricane Patricia bears down on the country's Pacific coast

Record ID: 135084

  • Title: MEXICO-STORM/PATRICIA-SHELTER Mexicans and tourists head to shelters as powerful Hurricane Patricia bears down on the country's Pacific coast
  • Date: 23rd October 2015
  • Summary: PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO (OCTOBER 23, 2015) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF EXTERIOR OF UNIVERSITY CAMPUS BEING USED AS SHELTER, EVACUEES ARRIVING FAMILIES WAITING TO ENTER SHELTER EVACUEES DISEMBARKING FROM BUS VARIOUS OF EVACUEES ENTERING THROUGH GATES AT UNIVERSITY CAMPUS BEING USED AS SHELTER VARIOUS OF RESIDENTS AND TOURISTS ALIKE INSIDE SHELTERS, CARRYING SUPPLIES, SETTLING
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4BVAAS8IHUVE5OFSWWA6LND57
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Mexico scrambled on Friday (October 23) to prepare as Hurricane Patricia, one of the strongest storms ever recorded, bore down on its Pacific Coast, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and residents and a mad rush for emergency supplies.
    The U.S. National Hurricane Centre said the Category 5 storm was the strongest ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, and the World Meteorological Organization compared it to 2013's Typhoon Haiyan, which killed thousands in the Philippines.
    The storm was expected to make landfall on Friday afternoon or early evening, the NHC added. In its path lies a patchwork of exclusive getaways favoured by tech billionaires and pop stars, as well as package vacation resorts, a major cargo port and modest fishing villages.
    Ramping up their warnings as the storm drew closer, Mexican officials said the unprecedented hurricane could wreak catastrophic damage.
    "We are implementing our contingency plans because of the threat from Hurricane Patricia. We are opening various shelters. Some were already open but we had to close some of them because there were risks due to their proximity to rivers or fears of some kind of flooding. We have opened various other locations like this one at the University of UNIVA," social worker with civil protection Carla Lariza Delgadillo said.
    "Obviously, we have not defined any certain areas. The classrooms are being prepared so we can receive the largest number of people who have arrived from nearby towns and hotels," she added.
    Resorts of Puerto Vallarta, popular with U.S. and Canadian tourists, ordered guests to evacuate hotels as a light rain fell and a slight breeze ruffled palm trees. The streets emptied as police sirens wailed.
    Hotel workers in Puerto Vallarta said efforts had begun to start evacuating guests, but others said they were still waiting to be told where to send them.
    Evacuees had started to arrive at this shelter at a nearby university.
    "A little bit worried, yea, we're a little nervous. It's probably nervous, I don't know, curious about what it is going to look like. And hopeful that it will turn out good," one tourist from Orange County in California, Fadi Badawi, said.
    The government warned that ash and other material from the volcano of Colima, about 130 miles (210 km) from Puerto Vallarta, could combine with massive rainfall to trigger "liquid cement"-style mudflows that could envelop nearby villages.
    Puerto Vallarta's airport and port were closed on Friday, while the major cargo port of Manzanillo was also shut. State oil company Pemex said service stations would stop selling gasoline in the hurricane-watch area.
    The storm grew at an "incredible rate" in the past 12 hours, the World Meteorological Organization said, and the NHC reported on Friday morning maximum sustained winds of about 200 miles per hour (321 km per hour) as it moved north at 10 mph (16 kph).
    Haiyan killed more than 6,300 people and wiped out or damaged practically everything in its path as it swept ashore on November 8, 2013, destroying around 90 percent of the city of Tacloban.
    The strongest storm ever recorded was Cyclone Tip which hit Japan in 1979.
    Patricia was last located about 125 miles (201 km) southwest of the port of Manzanillo.
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