Mexico's Pacific Coast braces for monster Hurricane Patricia

[webfact]

Mexico's Pacific Coast braces for monster Hurricane Patricia
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN

MANZANILLO, Mexico (AP) — Residents of a stretch of Mexico's Pacific Coast dotted with resorts and fishing villages boarded up homes and bought supplies ahead of Friday's arrival of Hurricane Patricia, a monster Category 5 storm that forecasters warned could be catastrophic.

Officials declared a state of emergency in dozens of municipalities in Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco states that contain the bustling port of Manzanillo and the posh resort of Puerto Vallarta. The governor of Colima ordered schools closed on Friday, when the storm was forecast to make landfall as a still-deadly Category 4 storm.

Rain pounded Manzanillo late Thursday while people took last-minute measures ahead of Patricia, which quickly grew from a tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane, leaving authorities scrambling to make people safe.

At a Wal-Mart in Manzanillo, shoppers filled carts with non-perishables as a steady rain fell outside.

Veronica Cabrera, shopping with her young son, said Manzanillo tends to flood with many small streams overflowing their banks. She said she had taped her windows at home to prevent them from shattering.

Alejandra Rodriguez, shopping with her brother and mother, was buying 10 liters of milk, a large jug of water and items like tuna and canned ham that do not require refrigeration or cooking. The family already blocked the bottoms of the doors at their home to keep water from entering.

Manzanillo's "main street really floods and cuts access to a lot of other streets. It ends up like an island," Rodriguez said.

In Puerto Vallarta, restaurants and stores taped or boarded-up windows, and residents raced to stores for last-minute purchases ahead of the storm.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that preparations should be rushed to completion, saying the storm could cause coastal flooding, destructive waves and flash floods.

"This is an extremely dangerous, potentially catastrophic hurricane," center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said.

Feltgen said Patricia also poses problems for Texas. Forecast models indicate that after the storm breaks up over land, remnants of its tropical moisture will likely combine with and contribute to heavy rainfall that is already soaking Texas independently of the hurricane, he said.

"It's only going to make a bad situation worse," he said.

In Colima, authorities handed out sandbags to help residents protect their homes from flooding.

By late Thursday, Patricia's maximum sustained winds had increased to 160 mph (260 kph) — a Category 5 storm, the highest designation on the Saffir-Simpson scale used to quantify a hurricane's wind strength.

Patricia was centered about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south-southwest of Manzanillo and was moving northwest at 13 mph (20 kph) on a projected track to come ashore between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta sometime Friday afternoon or evening.

Some weakening was forecast before then, but the Hurricane Center said it would still be "extremely dangerous" when it made landfall.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the Mexican coast from San Blas to Punta San Telmo, a stretch that includes Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta. A broader area was under hurricane watch, tropical storm warning or tropical storm watch.

The Hurricane Center said Patricia was expected to bring rainfall of 6 to 12 inches, with isolated amounts of up to 20 inches in some locations. Tropical storm conditions were expected to reach land late Thursday or early Friday, complicating any remaining preparation work at that point.

"We are calm," said Gabriel Lopez, a worker at Las Hadas Hotel in Manzanillo. "We don't know what direction (the storm) will take, but apparently it's headed this way. ... If there is an emergency we will take care of the people. There are rooms that are not exposed to wind or glass."
___

Associated Press writers Peter Orsi and E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-10-23

[lee b]

god help them all !

[godden]

Stay safe people.

[GOLDBUGGY]

This Hurricane is at 320 km/hr and now the highest ever recorded there. I can't even imagine the waves this Baby will bring in. They are going to need a lot more than just luck to get through this one.

[geriatrickid]

god help them all !

Why?

Have you considered that this may be the result of their sinful ways, debauched lives and hedonistic pursuits?

[geriatrickid]

This Hurricane is at 320 km/hr and now the highest ever recorded there. I can't even imagine the waves this Baby will bring in. They are going to need a lot more than just luck to get through this one.

Should make for some excellent surf conditions. Mexico has some incredible surfers and I anticipate they will take advantage. Surfers have no fear.

And in response to your comment about luck, I suggest they will need some brains and/or common sense. I direct your attention to the OP;

Alejandra Rodriguez, shopping with her brother and mother, was buying 10 liters of milk, a large jug of water

How stupid can someone be? The power will go off as soon as the storm hits. What then with the 10 liters of milk? Perhaps she has a thing for sour milk? A jug of water won't last long. Brilliance in action.

[Scott]

Depending on the temperature, they can make cottage cheese or possibly yogurt. Or they can drink really, really a lot of milk.

[Seastallion]

What am I missing here?

This constantly updated weather site is an excellent resource, and shows nothing remarkable about Patricia.

There are depressions much lower and wider-reaching at the current time.

https://www.windyty.com/?pressure,26.313,-120.498,4

[Jingthing]

Expect dead surfers! They can't resist.

Anyway, ... this has global climate change written all over it.

Why record-breaking hurricanes like Patricia are expected on a warmer planet

So in sum, scientists will never attribute one single event to climate change or say that it was caused by a warming planet; and with this event as with all weather events there are multiple causes, most prominently El Nino.

Nonetheless, we can say this: Record-setting hurricanes like Patricia are consistent with one major prediction that climate researchers have made for some time about the consequences of a warming world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/23/why-hurricanes-like-patricia-are-expected-on-a-warmer-planet/

Edited October 23, 2015 by Jingthing

[oncearugge]

Expect dead surfers! They can't resist.

Anyway, ... this has global climate change written all over it.

Why record-breaking hurricanes like Patricia are expected on a warmer planet

So in sum, scientists will never attribute one single event to climate change or say that it was caused by a warming planet; and with this event as with all weather events there are multiple causes, most prominently El Nino.

Nonetheless, we can say this: Record-setting hurricanes like Patricia are consistent with one major prediction that climate researchers have made for some time about the consequences of a warming world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/23/why-hurricanes-like-patricia-are-expected-on-a-warmer-planet/

More "doom & gloom" statements from the "climate change" conspirators ?

[Jingthing]

Who are they conspiring with? Mother nature?

[Gulfsailor]

Expect dead surfers! They can't resist.

Anyway, ... this has global climate change written all over it.

Why record-breaking hurricanes like Patricia are expected on a warmer planet

So in sum, scientists will never attribute one single event to climate change or say that it was caused by a warming planet; and with this event as with all weather events there are multiple causes, most prominently El Nino.

Nonetheless, we can say this: Record-setting hurricanes like Patricia are consistent with one major prediction that climate researchers have made for some time about the consequences of a warming world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/23/why-hurricanes-like-patricia-are-expected-on-a-warmer-planet/

More "doom & gloom" statements from the "climate change" conspirators ?

;-)

[Tywais]

What am I missing here?

This constantly updated weather site is an excellent resource, and shows nothing remarkable about Patricia.

There are depressions much lower and wider-reaching at the current time.

https://www.windyty.com/?pressure,26.313,-120.498,4

That chart is obviously not up to date.

In addition to its unprecedented 200-mph (320-kph) sustained winds, Hurricane Patricia now holds the record for lowest pressure in any hurricane on record. With a minimum central pressure of 880 millibars (25.99 inches of mercury) at the 4 a.m. CDT advisory, Patricia broke the record of 882 millibars set by Wilma almost exactly 10 years ago. At the 1 p.m. CDT advisory the minimum central pressure was lowered to 879 millibars (25.96).

Data from an Air Force Hurricane Hunter airborne reconnaissance mission late Thursday night provided critical data demonstrating the extreme intensification of Hurricane Patricia in near-real time.

Unprecedented Among Pacific Hurricanes

Hurricane Patricia became the strongest Pacific hurricane on record shortly after midnight CDT early Friday. Air Force Hurricane Hunters had flown through the eye of Patricia and reported a sea-level pressure of 894 millibars as measured by a dropsonde inside the eye itself. Wind measurements suggested that the pressure measurement was not in the exact center of the eye and was probably not the absolute lowest pressure, prompting NHC to estimate the minimum central pressure at 892 millibars in its special 12:30 a.m. CDT advisory.

http://www.weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-patricia-mexico-coast

[Tywais]

Incredible photo of Hurricane Patricia taken from International Space Station

Astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted an incredible photo of Hurricane Patricia from the International Space Station on Friday.

“Stay safe below, Mexico,” Kelly tweeted.

http://fox17online.com/2015/10/23/incredible-photo-of-hurricane-patricia-taken-from-international-space-station/

[Jingthing]

OMG.

[oncearugge]

Who are they conspiring with? Mother nature?

Each other using "erroneous" stats

Check it out!

[Jingthing]

One event doesn't prove anything anyway.

In any case, this might be a good time to repeat the famous phrase:
Poor Mexico.

So far from God and so close to the United States.

[Tywais]

This is going to be a horrific storm, catastrophic doesn't seem to be enough. 200mph+ winds surging to 256mph. Possible devastating storm surge up to 39 feet which is what caused most of the Katrina devastation. A storm chaser stated ‘No building on Earth’ can handle winds at 200 mph'. One site put it into perspective, if the scale was not locked to category 5 this would be a category 7.

Live Stream on YouTube:

[Jingthing]

Horrible.

I hear tourists (and presumably residents) are just staying in place in Puerto Vallarta. Isn't that insane? Shouldn't they be running inland?

[Tywais]

Horrible.

I hear tourists (and presumably residents) are just staying in place in Puerto Vallarta. Isn't that insane? Shouldn't they be running inland?

From my reading it appears Puerto Vallarta will not get the brunt of the storm but the smaller towns southeast. There have been 50,000 evacuated from these smaller towns where the projected main path and storm surge is expected to hit.

[Lampang2]

Que bestia.

[Lampang2]

Horrible.

I hear tourists (and presumably residents) are just staying in place in Puerto Vallarta. Isn't that insane? Shouldn't they be running inland?

From my reading it appears Puerto Vallarta will not get the brunt of the storm but the smaller towns southeast. There have been 50,000 evacuated from these smaller towns where the projected main path and storm surge is expected to hit.

Looks bad for Puerto Vallarta.

[Scott]

This is a specific storm, please refrain from making it into one of those never-ending debates on Climate Change.

[webfact]

'Colossal' hurricane barrels towards Mexico's Pacific coast



Mexico is bracing itself for one of the most powerful hurricanes in history.

Hurricane Patricia is barreling towards the country’s Pacific Coast.

The Category 5 storm is the strongest ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.

Packing winds of 325 kilometres per hour, it is being compared to Typhoon Haiyan, which killed thousands in the Philippines two years ago.

Businesses have boarded up windows, tourists have been evacuated from hotels and residents have stockpiled supplies.

A state of emergency has been declared in three states, which lie in Patricia’s path.

Mexico’s communications and transport minister, Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, said the hurricane is of “colossal” proportions, and urged people to protect themselves.

“It’s a danger to the coastlines, and a danger to the population,” he said.

Mexico’s government has warned that ash and other material from volcano of Colima, about 210 kilometres from Puerto Vallarta, could combine with massive rainfall to trigger “liquid cement” -style mudflows that could affect nearby villages.

The hurricane was expected to make landfall on Friday afternoon or early evening.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-10-24

[Usernames]

Listening to BBC last night, they had an interview with some silly British woman in Manzanillo on a vacation. She said she was staying put in the hotel 100 meters from the ocean, because the trip organizers had told her it was safe and she was sure they wouldn't lie. When some people leave their own country, they leave their brains behind.

[arby]

I'm 35 km north of Puerto Vallarta at the moment on the coast of a small fishing village called Sayulita. We have evacuated most of the guests at this resort that I am part of and all the staff except for 5 volunteers. 10 guests have chosen to ride it out with us. We have sandbagged and performed cautionary measures with all the units and outdoor facilities. At the moment it is just raining like a normal rainfall in Phuket at this time of year. We are expecting the rain to increase in another hour or so and the brunt of the storm is forecasted to hit us withing the next 2 -4 hours. It looks like it will make landfall farther south of us in Chamela and continue northeast with dissipating power. We will still be hit with some powerful winds and maybe some flooding but not the dreaded full force of over 400kph winds. I will try to send an update if the power holds and we still have electricity. Needless to say, i wish I was back home in Phuket.......

[khwaibah]

200 mph winds and knocking the shyt out of Mexico.

[webfact]

Hurricane Patricia: UK issues travel advice for British citizens in Mexico

LONDON, England - Hurricane Patricia is increasing in strength and now a Category 5 hurricane. If you are in the affected area or are concerned about someone who is, you should follow local advice or call the British Embassy in Mexico City on (0052) 55 1670 3200. British Nationals in Mexico are advised to view the British Embassy’s Facebook and Twitter pages for regular updates on Hurricane Patricia.

You can monitor the progress of approaching storms on the website of the US National Hurricane Centre . The hurricane is forecast to bring hazardous sea and weather conditions to parts of the west coast from around 23 October 2015.

The hurricane season normally runs from June to November and affects both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

Full story: http://www.eturbonews.com/65183/hurricane-patricia-uk-issues-travel-advice-british-citizens-mexi

-- eTN 2015-10-24

[zackattack]

No one controls mother nature to do so would be a very big mistake. Some things aren't made to be controlled just let them run their course. That is all you can do.

God give you strength and faith

Sincerely

Zack attack

[Tywais]