CHAMELA, Mexico (Reuters) – Hurricane Patricia caused less damage than feared on Mexico’s Pacific coast yesterday, but hammered an isolated part of the shoreline dotted with luxury villas and fishing villages, when the storm and its 165 mph (266 kph) winds landed.
Thousands of residents and tourists fled the advance of the storm, one of the strongest in recorded history, seeking refuge in hastily arranged shelters.
There were no early reports of deaths and it appeared major damage was averted as Patricia missed tourist centres like Puerto Vallarta and the major cargo port of Manzanillo.
However, the storm carved through small rural villages, ripping corrugated metal roofing off modest brick homes and uprooting trees, with the forceful winds sucking the leaves off them.
“I’ve lost everything, I don’t even have anywhere to sleep,” said Roberto Gonzalez, a farmer, as he salvaged belongings from mangled debris of trash, toys and branches strewn across his hamlet of Chamela near the coast of Jalisco state, which took a direct hit.
His mattress was tossed about 20 feet (6 metres) away from his house. A hole gaped where his roof used to sit. Power lines were knocked down in some of the worst damage electricity board repairmen had ever seen.
Around three-quarters of some 50 modest homes in Chamela were wrecked. Residents had been evacuated to a shelter.
Phone lines remain down where the storm hit in the nearby settlement of Cuixmala, the site of one of Mexico’s most exclusive getaways located between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta. It was unclear how bad the situation was there.
Flooding streets and battering buildings, Patricia hit land as a Category 5 hurricane on Friday evening before grinding inland. It moved quickly but lost power in the mountains that rise up along the Pacific coast and was downgraded to a tropical depression yesterday as it headed through central Mexico.
Experts said the storm’s speed meant it did not saturate the ground and trigger the major flooding feared. It was then broken up by high mountains, limiting the damage.
“The most important thing is that you are safe, that the menacing force of this hurricane could be faced and overcome and most importantly that you followed the recommendations of emergency services,” President Enrique Pena Nieto said during a visit to Colima, which escaped the worst of the storm.
In Puerto Vallarta, where 15,000 tourists had been hastily evacuated on Friday night, hotel workers began sweeping up the debris and removing boards from windows as the sun peeked out of the clouds. The airport reopened to start ferrying tourists back home and buses crowded the streets.
Away from the more populated areas, residents described awaking to a scene of chaos after a terrifying night.
“We were sobbing, I thought everything was going to collapse around us,” said Jose Angel Perez, 58, who sells coconuts in the municipality of Casimiro Castillo in Jalisco state, which lay in the storm’s path. Whipping winds blew part of his roof away.