Hurricane Patricia threatens west coast of Mexico
Date
10/24/2015 12:23:15 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Mexican authorities have declared a state of emergency in the western States of Nayarit Jalisco and Colima on Friday morning as Hurricane Patricia moves closer to the Pacific Coast.
According to the U.S National Center the storm could be the strongest ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere with top winds approaching 200 mph (321 km per hour).
The meteorological center based in Miami qualified the hurricane which has now been rated a category 5 -- the highest -- as a “potentially catastrophic landfall in southwestern Mexico’’.
Mexican authorities began to evacuate residents early Friday morning.
The government of Mexico highly recommended that residents in vulnerable areas seek refuge with relatives away from the Pacific coast.
The authorities also emitted an order to close schools and stores in several municipalities of the Pacific Coast among them Puerto Vallarta the luxury resort city of Jalisco State and in Manzanillo an important port of the State of Colima. '
'The most important thing today is saving lives'' said Mexican Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong after a meeting with President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Bags of sand have been placed on the West coast in a attempt to reduce the effect of potentially violent waves.
In a message on Twitter President Pena Nieto recommended that residents of the coast make food reserves and keep a radio and a flashlight close.
According to the experts of the World Meteorological Organization the intensity of Patricia could be compared to Typhoon Haiyan which struck the Philippines in 2013 killing more than 6000 people.
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