Mexico just experienced what is being called the worst hurricane ever recorded, but the results are less than devastating: minimal damage and an official death toll of zero.
Several news organizations reported that Patricia would be “the world’s strongest storm” or the “strongest storm ever measured,” but those predictions never came to fruition.
Winds from the massive storm reached 200-mph when it hit Mexico’s west coast Friday, but planning from the Mexican government and the geography of the region worked to severely lessen the storm’s effects, USA Today reports.
Hurricane Patricia couldn’t have come ashore in a more perfect spot. The Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, which extends for the length of Mexico’s west coast, weakened the storm as it passed over the largely uninhabited coast.
The effects of the storm were largely relegated to flooding and wind damage to coastal houses and small mudslides that blocked roads, but no deaths were reported, according to CNN.
Mexican officials claim their swift action to clear out hotels near the coast and evacuate residents from the area where the hurricane made landfall aided in the minimal effects of the storm.
“The population responded. The hotels responded. The shipping industry responded,” Mexico’s Communications and Transportation Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza told reporters over the weekend. “If we had not had that response, we would have had more incidents.”
Prior to the storm making landfall, news outlets were calling it “extremely dangerous” and saying the storm had the power to pass right over the mountain range and exit on the other side of the country. That narrative did not play out, though.
After the storm dissipated Sunday, rainstorms along the United States’s gulf coast threatened to cause flooding throughout Texas and Louisiana. Many highways throughout the Houston area were reported to be under water Saturday night, and in Corsicana, Tx., 20 inches of rain has fallen since Thursday.
Weather.com reports that tornadoes could pop up along the Gulf Coast throughout the day on Monday.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.