Flights Between California, Mexico Canceled As Hurricane Patricia Makes Landfall
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (CBS SF) — A dozen flights between California and a popular tourist destination in Mexico were canceled as forecasters say Category 5 Hurricane Patricia could make a "potentially catastrophic landfall" later on Friday.
Flights to and from Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego were among the canceled flights, according to Flightaware.com.
An Alaska Airlines flight to Puerto Vallarta scheduled to fly out of San Francisco International at 10:44 a.m. is also grounded.
A KCBS radio employee was evacuated from her coastal hotel and heading to Guadalajara by bus to ride out the hurricane. She told CBS San Francisco flights were full and she was unable to get out.
KPIX Weather Anchor Roberta Gonzales said Guadalajara will take a hit from this powerful storm as it moves 145 miles inland towards the city.
"Winds will be dulling, but Guadalajara will still be smacked with gusty, punishing winds and flooding rains," Gonzales said.
VIDEO: Stunning Image Of Monster Hurricane Patricia From ISS
Residents of a stretch of Mexico's Pacific Coast dotted with resorts and fishing villages on Thursday had already boarded up homes and bought supplies ahead of the storm. Some evacuations were reported in Puerto Vallarta, but few people were seen going to the shelters.
With maximum sustained winds near 200 mph, Patricia is the strongest storm ever recorded in the eastern Pacific or in the Atlantic, said Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Patricia's power was comparable to that of Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 dead or missing in the Philippines two years ago, according to the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization. More than 4 million people were displaced and over 1 million houses were destroyed or damaged in 44 provinces in the central Visayas region, a large cluster of islands that includes some of the country's poorest provinces.
In Mexico, officials declared a state of emergency in dozens of municipalities in Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco states that contain the bustling port of Manzanillo and the posh resort of Puerto Vallarta. The governor of Colima ordered schools closed on Friday, when the storm was forecast to make what the Hurricane Center called a "potentially catastrophic landfall."
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