Megastorm Patricia Inflicts Little Damage On Mexican Coast
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Only a day after menacing Mexico as one of history's strongest storms, Hurricane Patricia left surprisingly little damage in its wake Saturday and quickly dissipated into an ordinary low-pressure system that posed little threat beyond heavy rain.
As CBS2's Ilana Gold reported, Hurricane Patricia roared onshore in southwestern Mexico near the city of Manzanillo as a Category 5 storm, and while it has since been downgraded to a tropical depression, the situation is still very dangerous.
Residents in Mexico and Texas are facing major flooding and it's been a frightening experience for some New Yorkers who were trapped by the storm.
"I have family and friends sending me messages, saying 'Are you OK?' We're doing quite well," said Vikrum Vishnubhakta, of Manhattan.
Vishnubhakta is safe with his friends in Puerta Vallarta, which was left largely unscathed. But getting back to New York could be a challenge.
"If we have to get out Sunday or Monday. If the airports open or not, or if the roads are accessible to the airport," he said.
There were no reports of deaths or injuries, said Roberto Lopez Lara, interior secretary for the state of Jalisco. It was a remarkable outcome, considering that Patricia had winds up to 200 mph before coming ashore with slightly less power.
Hours later, as the storm spun inland, it collapsed into fast-moving bands of rain aimed at already sodden Texas.
Residents of the coast where Patricia came ashore described an enraged sea that crashed into hotels, scooping beach away from their foundations and howling winds that toppled trees and telephone posts.
"The waves were coming into the hotel,'' said Domingo Hernandez, a watchman at the Hotel Barra de Navidad in the resort village of the same name in Jalisco state.
Witnesses recorded the hurricane as it pushed trees sideways and ripped apart fences.
"Those were the longest five hours of my life,'' said Sergio Reyna Ruiz, who took cover between the shaking concrete walls of a neighbor's home when Patricia passed over the hamlet of La Fortuna, about 2 miles from the ocean. "Five hours riding the monster.''
"All the streets here in town are full of downed trees all over the place,'' said Hernandez, who described Patricia as the strongest storm he's seen in a quarter century of living on the coast. "You have to make your way around all the downed telephone poles, the power lines, the trees.''
Many families were forced to evacuate and head to Red Cross shelters. Hundreds of tourists had to pack up and leave their hotels.
"We came to the convention center, they said it wasn't a safe place. So we're going to the technical center," said John, a tourist from Arkansas.
Authorities were still trying to reach some of the hardest-hit areas, which were blocked by downed trees, but the devastation appeared to be far less than feared.
Mexico's president said damage has been less than expected for a hurricane of this magnitude, but the country's dealing with significant flooding and landslides now that Patricia has moved inland.
"We were fortunate as to where it made landfall. It was not a densely populated area,'' said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the U.S. National Hurricane Center. "You and I would be having a very different conversation if this went over the top of Puerto Vallarta.''
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Patricia had weakened to a tropical depression by midday Saturday with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph. But remnants of the storm were expected to feed existing rainstorms hitting southern Texas.
In San Antonio, a man walking his dog before dawn early Saturday was swept into a flooded drainage ditch and disappeared, fire officials said. Firefighters searched for two hours but had to stop due to bad weather. They planned to resume as soon as possible. The dog is safe.
Videos from Corsicana, southeast of Dallas, show the city dealing with more than 20 inches of rainfall. Dozens of drivers were stranded and needed to be rescued.
In Dallas, the fast-moving storm swamped low-lying streets and drivers had to wade through several feet of water.
And a Union Pacific freight train derailed after the tracks washed away. Two crew members who were on board escaped by swimming to safety.
The derailment happened overnight in an area 4 miles north of Corsicana. Union Pacific spokesman Jeff DeGraff said Chambers Creek was overflowing and washed out the tracks.
In west Texas, runoff washed away a mobile home. No one was inside at the time, Gold reported.
Flood waters also swallowed up an ambulance in Odessa, and prompted at least 30 swift water rescues in the area.
Galveston County Judge Mark Henry on Saturday issued a voluntary evacuation for Bolivar Peninsula, just northeast of Galveston Island, after forecasters predicted that the area would get 8 to 12 inches of rain and tides that are 4 to 5 feet high.
The judge warned that residents who don't leave might find themselves cut off from emergency services as the heaviest winds and rains come ashore.
Even though Patricia is weakening, the heavy flooding is expected to continue through the weekend.
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