Puerto Vallarta spared from Hurricane Patricia

One of Mexico’s most popular tourist areas avoided Hurricane Patricia’s wrath, after the storm, the strongest hurricane recorded at sea in the Western Hemisphere, started to dissipate after making landfall Saturday.

The storm hit the country on Oct. 23 just south of Puerto Vallarta in the region of Cuixmala, where winds uprooted trees and power lines. By the following day, the storm had largely dissipated, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. The center issued warnings of floods and landslides as a result of heavy rains dumped on the region.

While tourists were evacuated as a precaution ahead of the storm’s arrival, Puerto Vallarta is reporting that all hotels in the resort town are operational; flights from Canada to Puerto Vallarta resumed Oct. 25.

With winds reaching speeds of 322 km per hour at one point, Hurricane Particia was the strongest hurricane recorded in the Western Hemisphere.