Lidia made landfall close to the favored seaside resort of Puerto Vallarta amid warnings of floods and a storm surge.
Hurricane Lidia has crashed into Mexico’s Pacific coast as an “extraordinarily harmful” Class 4 storm, killing not less than one particular person as residents sought shelter from torrential rain and highly effective winds.
Lidia made landfall close to the favored seaside resort of Puerto Vallarta, with most sustained winds of about 220km per hour (140 miles per hour) the US Nationwide Hurricane Middle (NHC) mentioned on Tuesday.
“Life-threatening winds and flooding rainfall spreading inland over west-central Mexico,” the NHC mentioned in a bulletin.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador mentioned the federal government had deployed about 6,000 members of the armed forces to assist residents.
“You have to take refuge in protected locations – steer clear of low areas, streams, rivers and hillsides,” he wrote on social media.
Authorities within the state of Nayarit mentioned one man was killed when a tree fell on the van he was driving north of Puerto Vallarta.
Within the city, residents boarded up home windows and dragged sacks of sand from the seaside to strengthen flood boundaries in entrance of their outlets. Authorities on the airport mentioned it will be closed till 8am (14:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
College lessons have been suspended, companies closed early and most residents waited out the storm at dwelling or in shelters opened by the authorities, in response to reporters from the AFP information company.
Danger of flooding, storm surge
Social media movies confirmed heavy rain so far as the inland metropolis of Guadalajara. Some individuals reported fallen bushes blocking roads and rivers threatening to burst their banks.
Lidia was anticipated to deliver rainfall of as much as 30cm (12 inches) to Nayarit, Sinaloa and Jalisco states, the NHC mentioned.
“These rains will possible produce flash and concrete flooding, together with doable mudslides in areas of upper terrain close to the coast,” it warned.
“A harmful storm surge is predicted to supply vital coastal flooding close to and to the south of the place the middle makes landfall. Close to the coast, the surge can be accompanied by massive and harmful waves,” the NHC added.
Hurricanes hit Mexico yearly on each its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, normally between Could and November.
Additional south, Tropical Storm Max left two individuals useless and injured not less than two extra within the southern state of Guerrero, one of many nation’s poorest areas, authorities mentioned on Tuesday.
Lidia comes eight years after Patricia, a Class 5 hurricane – the very best stage on the Saffir-Simpson scale – struck near Puerto Vallarta with winds that compelled 1000’s of individuals to flee their properties.
Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful because the world will get hotter with local weather change.