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Mexico braces for strongest hurricane in Western hemisphere as Patricia churns towards coast

The monster Category 5 storm was comparable to Typhoon Haiyan

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Hurricane Patricia approaches the coastline of Mexico from the Eastern Pacific. Photo: EPA

Hurricane Patricia headed towards southwestern Mexico on Friday as a monster Category 5 storm, the strongest ever in the Western Hemisphere that forecasters said could make a “potentially catastrophic landfall” later in the day.

Residents of a stretch of Mexico’s Pacific Coast dotted with resorts and fishing villages on Thursday had already boarded up homes and bought supplies ahead of Patricia’s arrival. Some evacuations were reported in Puerto Vallarta.

With maximum sustained winds near 325 km/h, Patricia is the strongest storm ever recorded in the eastern Pacific or in the Atlantic, said Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist at the US National Hurricane Centre.
An employee of a car rental company tapes up a glass door as he prepares for Hurricane Patricia in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Photo: Reuters
An employee of a car rental company tapes up a glass door as he prepares for Hurricane Patricia in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Photo: Reuters
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Patricia’s power was comparable to that of Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 dead or missing in the Philippines two years ago, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation. More than 4 million people were displaced and over 1 million houses were destroyed or damaged in 44 provinces in the central Visayas region, a large cluster of islands that includes some of the country’s poorest provinces.

In Mexico, officials declared a state of emergency in dozens of municipalities in Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco states that contain the bustling port of Manzanillo and the upmarket resort of Puerto Vallarta. The governor of Colima ordered schools closed on Friday, when the storm was forecast to make what the Hurricane Centre called a “potentially catastrophic landfall.”

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According to the 2010 census, there were more than 7.3 million inhabitants in Jalisco state and more than 255,000 in Puerto Vallarta municipality. There were more than 650,000 in Colima state, and more than 161,000 in Manzanillo.
As Hurricane Patricia approaches a man dozes on his luggage while waiting for a bus out of town at the bus station in the Pacific resort city Puerto Vallarta. Photo: AP
As Hurricane Patricia approaches a man dozes on his luggage while waiting for a bus out of town at the bus station in the Pacific resort city Puerto Vallarta. Photo: AP
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