Posted on 10/23/2015 9:09:30 AM PDT by Mariner
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (AP) -- Hurricane Patricia barreled toward southwestern Mexico Friday as a monster Category 5 storm, the strongest ever in the Western Hemisphere. Locals and tourists were either hunkering down or trying to make last-minute escapes ahead of what forecasters called a "potentially catastrophic landfall" later in the day.
The storm was homing in on a Pacific coastline dotted with both sleepy fishing villages and gleaming resorts, including the popular beach city of Puerto Vallarta and the port of Manzanillo. After hitting land, Patricia's projected path would quickly take it over mountainous terrain that's prone to dangerous flash floods and landslides.
In Puerto Vallarta, locals 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
It leveled stick-built houses for square miles and hoisted cars airborne.
Patricia of 2015 has sustained winds of 205, expect to strengthen to 215 at landfall.
This will completely defoliate the earth in it's path. Any building that is not concrete block and/or steel will certainly fall.
A Hurricane with sustained winds that rival an EF5 Tornado. A quote from Wiki on that damage:
Strong framed, well built houses leveled off foundations and swept away; steel-reinforced concrete structures are critically damaged; tall buildings collapse or have severe structural deformations; some cars, trucks and train cars can be thrown approximately 1 mile (1.6 kilometres)."
My sister and her hubby were stationed at Homestead during Andrew. They evacuated and went back to total destruction. They were transferred immediately after.
My wife and I are in the Houston area and she just called me asking if I was coming home from work now. I told her no and asked why. She said she didn’t want me to get stuck at work because of the hurricane. I told her it is a thousand miles from us but she insists that the flooding will start at anytime!
The flooding is expected to reach Texas with another 8-12 inches over the next 24-36 hours.
Even if a building is concrete it may fall, either due to implosion or the ridiculous amount of sand they use in construction there. Steel may go too. In Hugo, I saw a billboard made of four eighteen inch I-beams bent over at a 90 degree angle.
The storm surge on this should be wild. What will the tide be when it hits? High or low? What is the pressure in the eye (that is what really sucks up the storm surge)? It would be hard to believe that the surge can be that high for an eye 60 miles across, but who knows?
I stayed for Hugo and will never again stay for anything like that.
Since the NWS hypes every storm, it’s hard to know when to believe their forecasts. The evacuation panic in Texas before Hurricane Rita, which followed Hurricane Katrina, caused many more deaths than the storm did,
She keeps saying that if we ever do get a hurricane “we are evacuating” before it hits. I’m more prone to stay as we are not in a flood zone and I hate sitting in traffic.
Now saying strongest in history, anywhere.
They and the weather channel love the hyperbole of every weather event being unprecidented or the worst ever recorded.
I'm surprised that they haven't started naming dust storms in Arizona yet.
From the beach, it's straight into hills, then mountains.
Hugo was a spring shower compared to this monster. These types of storms are usually seen only in the Western Pacific, and then they are rare.
All you have to do is look at the Sat images yourself to know that wherever this storm makes landfall will be reduced to moonscape.
Dont worry folks..the mexican guv has an outstanding First responder network and civil defense system. The police can be trusted to guard property and valuables...women and children will be safe from rape and men from murder. The building codes are strict and all new construction has passed inspection from honest inspectors.....
They dont need any gringo help...no need to give to the Red Cross and certainly no guv aid. You’re welcome!
Yeah, it's a monster.
EF5 Tornado that's 60 miles across...and EF4 out to 120 miles.
two feet of rain.
This one is now, officially, the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded.
In spite of NWS.
They'll now come to regret crying wolf for decades.
Some places in Texas are already cancelling events tomorrow.
A thousand miles away, but in the rain cone.
You are so right, I believe the abbreviation of this system is USA, subheading Taxpayer.
This storm will cost the US Taxpayer AT LEAST $10bil, and that doesn't include any international Insurance Companies, or their institutional investors, that we will have to prop up.
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