Hurricane Lidia was downgraded to a tropical storm on Wednesday, October 11, weakening during its passage through Mexico, according to a bulletin from the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC). The cyclone lost power as it advanced towards the northeast of the country, causing falling trees, overflowing rivers and flooding.
The government of Nayarit state in western Mexico said a man was killed when a tree fell on his car while he was driving in the coastal town of Bahia de Banderas.
Described as “extremely dangerous” by meteorological services, the hurricane was downgraded Tuesday evening to category two, with winds of 165 kilometers per hour, and the NHC forecasts expected it to weaken. Formed over the Pacific Ocean, it was classified by the NHC as category four out of five on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of 220 kilometers per hour, when it made landfall on Tuesday at 5 p.m. a.m. local time (1:50 a.m. BST) in western Mexico, near the resort town of Puerto Vallarta.
Two dead after tropical storm Monday
In the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Colima, on the Pacific coast, heavy rains caused rivers to overflow and limited flooding, according to authorities. Alert messages were sent to warn that falling trees were blocking certain rural roads. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had asked residents in affected areas to stay home, recalling nearly 6,000 troops who had been deployed to help the population.
Mexico is hit by hurricanes every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, generally between May and November. On Monday, a tropical storm, named Max, hit the state of Guerrero, in the south of the country, causing the death of two people, according to regional authorities.
