Patricia spares Mexico, worst hurricane fades to tropical storm

(Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Patricia hit Mexico’s west coast in an area between commercial centers and rapidly broke down into a tropical storm, sparing Latin America’s second-biggest economy from a feared catastrophe.

Early reports from local media indicate Patricia caused some damage in the states of Jalisco and Colima, and power was lost in some villages. Puerto Vallarta, a beach resort destination north of the hurricane’s landfall, was reported to have moderated rain and its main services unaffected, newspaper Reforma said on its website.

Patricia -- which before making landfall was the strongest storm ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere -- was downgraded to a tropical storm at 7:53 a.m. New York time after making landfall Friday evening near Cuixmala as a Category 5 hurricane, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale. El Universal reported on its website that Jalisco state endured damages with no casualties.

“ The first reports confirm that the damages have been smaller than those corresponding to a hurricane of this magnitude,” Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Friday night in a televised message to the nation. “We cannot yet let our guard down,” he said.

Patricia packed winds of 160 miles (260 kilometers) per hour, down from 200 mph earlier, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Patricia struck about 55 miles west- northwest of Manzanillo, Mexico’s busiest container port.

“Even though Patricia is weakening quickly, strong and damaging winds at higher elevations could persist through this morning,” the hurricane center said. The storm will break up over the mountains of Mexico by tonight, the center said.

Mexico ordered the evacuation of areas close to the hurricane path as the storm approached and deployed about 3,000 soldiers to safeguard the security of the population, Reforma reported Friday.

More than 10,000 tourists were evacuated from Puerto Vallarta in anticipation of the hurricane, El Universal said. About 400,000 people were considered “vulnerable,” civil protection official Jose Maria Tapia told reporters in Mexico City Friday.

Kinetic Analysis Corp. had projected the storm could cause more than $3 billion in damages, with about a sixth of that total incurred by insurers.

Hurricane Patricia forced the closing of ports in Vallarta, Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, according to the Communications and Transportation Ministry. Manzanillo has a liquefied natural gas terminal and a rail line operated by Ferromex, owned by Grupo Mexico SAB and Union Pacific Corp.

--With assistance from Nacha Cattan in Mexico City and Brendan Walsh in New York.

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