Mexico is bracing for Hurricane Patricia, a monster Category 5 storm whose landfall could be “catastrophic.”
On Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the weather system barrelling toward Mexico’s coast is the strongest storm ever recorded in the Western hemisphere.
With sustained winds of 325 km/hr, the Hurricane Center is predicting a potentially “catastrophic landfall” in southwestern Mexico late Friday, if it hits landfall at current speeds.
READ MORE: How monster Hurricane Patricia is affecting Mexico-bound flights from Canada
How windy is 325 kilometres an hour? Enough “to get a plane in the air and keep it flying,” a spokesperson for the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization said.
Patricia is a Category 5 storm, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale used to quantify storm wind speeds. Storms in that category have the potential to cause enormous damage.
“We are talking here about a dangerously strong hurricane,” Environment Canada Meteorologist Jean-Marc Couturier said. “Basically, we are looking at houses being destroyed from their frame. You would have wall collapses on houses, total roof collapses.”
Get breaking National news
On Thursday, an aircraft was sent to investigate the strength of the storm and the recordings topped out the instruments on board.
READ MORE: Hurricane Patricia: How strong is the ‘potentially catastrophic’ storm?
“This is as strong as a hurricane gets,” Couturier said.
It could take months for Mexico to recover from Patricia’s effects, Couturier said.
Residents in the storm-hit area could be without hydro and clean water for weeks.
“Access to clean, palatable water will be a huge issue,” said Jerry Jien, PhD in Physical & Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto.
The people in the most danger are those on Mexico’s west coast, especially in the state of Jalisco, said Roberto Ramirez, director of Mexico’s National Water Commission.
According to Mexico’s 2010 census there are more than 7.3 million inhabitants in Jalisco state and more than 255,000 in Puerto Vallarta.
READ MORE: Satellite photos reveal gigantic size of Hurricane Patricia
According to the Assoicated Press, residents in tourist city Puerto Vallarta reinforced homes with sandbags and shop windows with boards and tape, and hotels rolled up beachfront restaurants. The airport was closed to all flights and all but deserted, but lines formed at a bus station by people anxious to buy tickets to Guadalajara and other inland destinations.
Fire trucks and ambulances rolled through the streets, sirens blaring, as emergency workers warned people in both Spanish and English to evacuate.
With files from the Associated Press
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.