Powerful Hurricane Lidia, which struck western Mexico on Tuesday evening before weakening into a tropical storm, left two dead, local authorities said on Wednesday. A man died in his vehicle swept away by the current while trying to cross a swollen river in the municipality of Pihuamo, in the state of Jalisco, said the regional director of civil protection, Victor Hugo Roldan.
Another man was killed by a falling tree in the coastal town of Banderas Bay, authorities in the neighboring state of Nayarit reported. Lidia formed over the Pacific Ocean before making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane out of five on the Saffir-Simpson scale. With winds of 220 km/h accompanied by heavy rain, the hurricane was described as “extremely dangerous” by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) based in the United States.
“We saw objects flying”
In Puerto Vallarta, one of Mexico’s main tourist destinations, located about 100 kilometers from the entry point, the hurricane toppled trees, flooded streets and partially cut power.
“We saw objects flying, roofs of buildings torn off, palm trees bent. We didn’t expect it to be so strong,” Jorge Reyes, a 56-year-old security employee, told AFP.
With its long coastlines on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides, Mexico is regularly exposed to hurricanes that form offshore. A dozen depressions per year are likely to turn into more or less devastating hurricanes depending on their point of entry. The most powerful ever recorded, Patricia, in October 2015, with winds of 325 km/h, however, only caused material damage because it entered the territory through an uninhabited mountainous area.