Hurricane Patricia 215 MPH Winds, Strongest Ever Measured on Planet

(Before It’s News)

HURRICANE PATRICIA UPDATES Breaking News Patricia Updates 

Update: 9:30 am 23 Oct. 2015

Mexicans have just be warned the shocking news that Hurricane Patricia has the potential to lift cars and homes.

Conagua director says the phenomenon has the strength to lift cars and homes. He announced in a press conference that Playa Perula is the area most at risk, and to make preparations.

“We don’t want anyone outside after 2 p.m. Hurricane Patricia will be able to lift cars,” the Civil Guard reports.

Mexicans in the path still at home have been told to cut power, gas and water at their homes to prevent adding to the pending humanitarian catastrophe.

Update: 8:45 am 23 Oct. 2015

Hurricane Patricia became the strongest storm ever measured on the planet early Friday, threatening 205 mph winds at landfall and to trigger deadly 40-foot waves, “life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides” along with widespread power outages, experts say. Waterspouts, tornadoes and whirlpools near the hurricane at landfall are likely. Disastrous conditions will probably begin at noon Friday.

Because of recent rains that softened the ground, the area could register mudslides, landslides, overflowing rivers and streams and damages in roads and road sections, as well as flooding in low saturation areas and drains in urban sites.

Several million residents on Mexico’s southern west coast were told to rapidly prepare for the “worst-case scenario” as powerhouse Patricia raced toward them late Friday afternoon or early evening.

With 215 mph maximum sustained winds early Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) described Patricia as the “strongest hurricane on record” in the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific Basins. CONAGUA, Mexico’s national water commission, predicted waves up to 39 feet at landfall. In August, Dupré reported a powerhouse El Nino amid the hottest ocean waters in recorded history was brewing catastrophic conditions, requiring early preparations.

Patricia’s power is comparable to Typhoon Haiyan, that left more than 7,300 dead or missing in the Philippines two years ago, according to the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization.

At 4:00pm Central Daylight Time, the hurricane was about 400 kilometers south of Manzanillo and moving west-northwest at 20 km/h. Forecasters at AccuWeather narrowed Hurricane Patricia’s landfall to  just northwest of the city of Manzanillo in Colima The NHC, that had said it would weaken at landfall, said early Friday tht  some strengthening is forecast for tonight when it hits.

Category 5 Hurricane Patricia became a “potentially catastrophic hurricane” in the Pacific Ocean Thursday, according to forecasters. Government officials scrambled to warn the public to rapidly prepare for the dangerous super storm, intensified over the hottest water in recorded history from a little tropical storm into a monster within 24 hours, threatening life and property.

“Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion today,” the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said Thursday night after Hurricane Patirica quickly grew from a 65MPH tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane, causing authorities to scramble in attempt to make people safe.

Satellite images indicate that maximum sustained winds increased to 200 mph with higher gusts, the NHC reported. “Some fluctuations in intensity are possible today, but Patricia is expected to remain an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane through landfall,” the center reported early Friday morning.

Patricia is expected to land near Punta San Telmo, Baja California Sur late Friday. Hurricane warnings are in effect on Mexico’s Pacific Coast from San Blas to Punta San Telmo, including resort cities Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. People in the most danger are those on the coast, especially in the state of Jalisco.

According to the 2010 census, more than 7.3 million inhabitants are in Jalisco state; more than 255,000 in Puerto Vallarta municipality; more than 650,000 in Colima state, and more than 161,000 in Manzanillo.

Not only Patricia’s expected deadly winds have Mexicans preparing for the worst. Destructive waves, heavy rain and thus landslides are probable, only a month after neighboring Guatemala’s catastrophic rain storm and mudslides buried hundreds alive. Up to 20 inches of rain has been predicted for Mexican states Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero through Saturday, the NHC said.

Manzanillo’s “main street really floods and cuts access to a lot of other streets. It ends up like an island,” explained a resident Alejandra Rodriguez.

Patricia is the only second category 5 hurricane to hit the entire Pacific coast since full recordkeeping began in 1949. A storm struck late October 1959 near Manzanillo, killing an estimated 1,800 people — 800 from mudslides alone. A category 5 damage averages over five billion dollars, unimaginable for Americans poor neighbors to the south.

Forecast models indicate that after the storm breaks over land, its tropical moisture will likely combine with and contribute to heavy rainfall in the area and all the way to Texas, already soaked independently of the hurricane, according to center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen.

“It’s only going to make a bad situation worse,” he said. (See the module of possible paths here.)

Governor Javier Duarte is seeking an emergency declaration for 71 municipalities where rivers already  hve overflown their banks and there is widespread flooding causing damage to homes and highways.