Resort town Puerto Vallarta spared after Hurricane Lidia strikes Mexico's Pacific coast

After much anticipation about the dangers of Hurricane Lidia, the massive storm made landfall off Mexico’s Pacific Coast as a Category 4 storm near the resort town of Puerta Vallarta, where one person was killed and two others were left injured.

The individual killed died after they were struck by a falling tree north of the resort town, according to Laura Velázquez, the head of Mexico’s civil defense system.

Mexican news reports indicated that the storm blew roofs off houses and knocked down trees, and that the hurricane had winds as high as 140 mph as it drifted inland, where it continued to dissipate.

Despite the tragic loss, the storm effectively spared the resort town of Puerto Vallarta and neighboring towns and villages that were on high alert from the incoming storm.

The storm’s winds slowed down to a mere 35 mph as it finally began dissipating 145 miles northeast of Guadalajara, the capital of the western state of Jalisco and the country’s second largest city, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

According to the Center, Lidia made landfall near a low population area and then moved inland south of Puerto Vallarta with 105 mph winds.

So far, the damage assessed seems mostly limited to very minor structural damage.

Puerto Vallarta’s city government said about 12 trees were knocked down and several homes had their roofs blown off. Trees also collapsed in the neighboring state of Nayarit. 

Lidia’s eye also reached land near a sparsely populated peninsula known as Las Penitas an area near Cabo Corrientes, according to The U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Mexican residents were fortunate Lidia struck where it did because she remained a powerful hurricane as it crept across land.

Several highways were blocked and the state kept 23 shelters open for residents who were displaced by the storm. So far however, only a few dozen people have had to access the shelters.

Mexican school officials also canceled classes in coastal communities, fearing for the worst in the wake of Tropical Storm Max, which also struck the country’s Pacific coast on Oct. 9 about 40 miles from the resort town of Zihuatanejo.

In 2015, a Category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Patricia, made landfall in the same area between Puerto Vallarta and the port town of Manzanillo. The area has a low population, which minimized danger.