PUERTO VALLARTA (AFP) – Hurricane Lidia was downgraded to a tropical storm early yesterday as it weakened after making landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast, where it left at least one dead and caused flooding and blocked roads, officials said.
Hours after slamming into the coast as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane, Lidia had weakened to a tropical storm as it headed northeast across the country, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an update.
Ahead of its arrival the government deployed around 6,000 members of the armed forces to help residents, according to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who urged people to take shelter. A man died when a tree fell on the car he was driving during strong winds in Bahia de Banderas in Nayarit state, authorities said.
Lidia came ashore near the popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, packing maximum sustained winds of around 140 miles per hour, the NHC said.
The storm had quickly strengthened to the second-highest category on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale before reaching land.
But early yesterday, its maximum sustained winds had dropped to 70 miles per hour and it was expected to rapidly lose strength, the NHC said.
In Puerto Vallarta – a major destination for Mexican and foreign tourists – shopkeepers earlier boarded up windows and piled up sandbags in case of flooding.
Waves crashed ashore, heavy rain drenched the city and strong winds whipped palm trees.
School classes were suspended, businesses closed early and most residents waited out the storm at home or in shelters opened by the authorities, according to AFP reporters.
But some people were still seen in the streets, taken by surprise by the speed of the hurricane’s arrival.
“I was going to go home, but it’s very far away. I’m going to have to take shelter somewhere else. There’s no transportation. It caught me off guard,” said Herson Rodriguez, a 35-year-old fitness trainer.
