Mexico hit by ‘extremely dangerous’ hurricane
11 October 2023, 08:24
The storm had generated ‘extraordinary rain and high surf’ in various places but there had been no reports of injuries or deaths so far.
Hurricane Lidia made landfall near Mexico’s Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm on Tuesday with winds of 140mph, before moving inland.
The US National Hurricane Centre said Lidia’s eye appeared to have reached land near Las Penitas in the western state of Jalisco. The area is a sparsely populated peninsula.
The hurricane then moved south of Puerto Vallarta to a point inland about 30 miles (50km) east of the resort, and about 90 miles (150km) west of the capital of Jalisco state, Guadalajara.
Lidia remained a powerful hurricane even after moving over land, with winds of 105mph (165kph) late on Tuesday. Jalisco and Nayarit states reported downed trees and electricity cables, as well as landslides over some major roads in the region.
Lidia was moving east-northeast at about 17mph (28kph), and forecasters predicted it could still be a Category 1 hurricane when it brushed by Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, around midnight.
Jalisco governor Enrique Alfaro posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, an hour-and-a-half after Lidia made landfall that the storm had generated “extraordinary rain and high surf” in various places, but that so far there were no reports of injuries or deaths.
The state had 23 shelters open, he said. The Puerto Vallarta city government said a few dozen people had gone to shelters there.
In 2015, Hurricane Patricia, a Category 5 hurricane, also made landfall on the same sparsely populated stretch of coastline between the resort of Puerto Vallarta and major port of Manzanillo.
Lidia was expected to soak the region with heavy rain, and the hurricane centre warned of possible flash flooding.
The centre forecast rainfall totals of four to eight inches, with localised totals of 12 inches possible in some places in the state of Nayarit, southern portions of the state of Sinaloa, and coastal areas of Jalisco.
Local authorities cancelled classes in communities around the coast.
The expected impact comes one day after Tropical Storm Max hit the southern Pacific coast, hundred of miles away, before dissipating. Rains from Max washed out part of a coastal road in the southern state of Guerrero.
