Strong Hurricane Lydia kills two people in the west of the country

Local authorities said on Wednesday that powerful Hurricane Ledia, which struck western Mexico on Tuesday evening before weakening and turning into a tropical storm, killed two people. Regional Director of Civil Protection, Victor Hugo Roldan, said that a man died in his car, which was swept away by the current while trying to cross an overflowing river in the municipality of Pihuamo, Jalisco state.

Authorities in neighboring Nayarit state said another man was killed by a falling tree in the coastal town of Banderas Bay. Lydia formed over the Pacific Ocean before making landfall as a Category 4 out of 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. With winds of 220 kilometers per hour accompanied by heavy rain, the US-based National Hurricane Center described the hurricane as “extremely dangerous.”

“We saw things flying”

In Puerto Vallarta, one of Mexico’s main tourist destinations, located about 100 kilometers from the entry point, the hurricane downed trees, flooded streets and partially lost power.

“We saw things flying, the roofs of buildings collapsing, and palm trees bent over. We did not expect it to be this strong,” Jorge Reyes, a 56-year-old security employee, told AFP.

With its long coastline on both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Mexico is regularly hit by hurricanes that form offshore. Dozens of depressions per year are likely to become more or less destructive hurricanes depending on their entry point. The strongest hurricane ever recorded, Patricia, in October 2015, with winds of 325 km/h, only caused material damage because it entered the region through uninhabited mountainous terrain.