Monster Hurricane Patricia is downgraded to a Category 4 storm but still 'extremely dangerous' as winds drop from 165mph to 130mph and thousands are evacuated from western Mexico 

• Hurricane Patricia made landfall in Mexico, hitting the town of Emiliano Zapata in Jalisco state with 165mph winds
• Winds have slowed to 130mph and it was downgraded to a Category 4 storm - but it is still 'extremely dangerous' 
• Thousands of tourists fled the coastline as locals boarded up their homes and businesses amid chaotic scenes 
• Catastrophic flash floods caused by the hurricane and another storm threaten 10million people in Texas 
• Forecasters said up to 20 inches of rain could fall in Texas over the next 24 hours as Patricia makes her way north 

By Ollie Gillman For Dailymail.com

Published: 22:20 EST, 22 October 2015 | Updated: 23:41 EST, 23 October 2015

Hurricane Patricia is still 'extremely dangerous' despite being downgraded to a Category 4 storm, officials warned last night.

The hurricane was billed as the strongest ever and had wind speeds of 201mph before hitting land, but this has slowed to 130mph as it moves across Mexico.

Thousands of tourists fled yesterday as the storm approached, however it appears to have missed most major towns and cities that were predicted to be in Patricia's path.

The US National Hurricane Center warned that the storm was still 'extremely dangerous' and could still cause deadly mudslides and catastrophic flash flooding.

Across the border in Texas the tail end of the hurricane is likely to cause flooding, with 20 inches of rain set to fall in less than 24 hours in some places. The combination of Hurricane Patricia and a slow-moving storm system has put 10million people in Texas under flash flood warnings.

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From space: This image taken on Friday from the International Space Station shows the huge scale of Hurricane Patricia. Hurricane strength winds are sweeping across a circular area 70 miles wide inside the storm

The storm is moving slowly eastwards across Mexico as it slows down and is not currently expected to reach the US as a hurricane

As far as the eye can see: Another shot take by astronaut Mark Kelly aboard the International Space Station shows the storm stretching to the horizon 

Hurricane Patricia's (right) winds were of similar strength to those Hurricane Katrina (left) when it hit the East Coast in 2005

Pictures posted online by local police near where the hurricane struck showed scenes of utter devastation, with trees uprooted

Left in its wake: A tree blocks a road on the western coast of Mexico, where Hurricane Patricia struck early on Friday evening

The storm was bearing down on the western coast on Friday evening as locals prepared for the devastation it is likely to cause

Evacuees hunkered down inside a hurricane shelter in Puerto Vallarta shortly before the Category 5 storm struck on Friday

A pregnant woman and her young child rest on the floor of a shelter as they waited out the hurricane after it made landfall in Mexico

Panic buying: Lines at stores in the coastal community were also long but the majority of tourists and residents evacuated Puerto Vallarta at the urging of loud speaker announcements. One resident said: 'Everyone is running'

Battening down the hatches: The made landfall on Friday evening with fierce winds gusting up to 165mph as it hit Mexico

Texas feels the effects: Cars are caught in flooding near Dallas on Friday as rain driven by Patricia pounds Texas

Eye of the storm: This October 23 UTC Eumetsat satellite image shows category 5 Hurricane Patricia, off the Pacific coast of Mexico

Hunkering down: Workers deploy sandbags and board up windows in an attempt to protect the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, left. While tourists arrive at a makeshift shelter at the town's university, right

Track: Hurricane Patricia has made its way slowly north east before hitting Mexico. It will not tear through mountainous towns and villages 

Emergency shelter: People arrive at a makeshift shelter set up in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Patricia in the Pacific resort city Puerto Vallarta

The tail end of the hurricane has put 10million people under flash flood warnings, including swathes of Texas that are already being pounded with torrential rain (floods near Dallas pictured)

Rain fell throughout Friday in Texas, where 20 inches of rain could fall in some parts of the state in the next 24 hours. A foot of rain is expected in Dallas (pictured Friday), Houston and Austin tomorrow

Rain fell throughout Friday in Texas and a foot more rainfall is expected in Dallas, Houston and Austin tomorrow.

The National Weather Service said that as the hurricane moves inland, the mountains of Mexico 'will shred Patricia apart', but the weakened system will continue moving north and eventually bring another round of rain to Texas before moving into Arkansas, Louisiana and beyond. 

Category 5 storm Patricia was the strongest recorded hurricane in history, with the US National Hurricane Center measuring 201mph sustained winds before it hit land and the lowest recorded atmospheric pressure of 880mb.  

Some officials even warn that Patricia would make it across Mexico as a hurricane, regain strength in the Gulf of Mexico and head towards the United States. 

By 10pm local time the storm had dropped down to being a Category 4 hurricane, with wind speeds of around 130mph, though the National Hurricane Center said it was still 'extremely dangerous'.

Patricia developed in the Pacific so suddenly that many had little time to flee coastal towns in Mexico, with hotels and schools turned into shelters for those without somewhere safe to hunker down. 

Locals boarded up their homes ahead of the hurricane and were seen gathering last-minute supplies after being told to prepare for the 'worst-case scenario'. 

Near the tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta, holidaymakers told of their terror as hotels turned function rooms into makeshift shelters. 

Brad Powles, from California, tweeted pictures of hotel staff locking and bolting doors to their hotel shelter shut, with dozens of beds moved downstairs for terrified people waiting out the storm. 

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said it was hard to predict what damage would be done by the massive storm, which could be seen barreling into Mexico from outer space.

'But one thing we're certain of is that we're facing a hurricane of a scale we've never ever seen,' he warned the nation in a radio interview. 

Seeking shelter: Mexican and international tourists wait at a conference center to be transferred to a shelter, ahead of the arrival of Category 5 Hurricane Patricia

Evacuation: Tourists board a bus in Puerto Vallarta where residents are being evacuated before Patricia - the strongest Pacific hurricane ever - hit 

Calm before the storm: Mexican and international tourists wait for buses to transport them to a shelter ahead of the landfall of Patricia on Friday evening

Vast: This image taken by a Nasa satellite also shows the true scale of the storm, which one Mexican official described as the most dangerous in history

Locals and tourists were either hunkering down or trying to make last-minute escapes ahead of what forecasters called a "potentially catastrophic landfall

Vast: Patricia completely fills the frame in this shot taken by a NOAA weather satellite. The eye of the storm is eight miles wide 

Men try to secure the windows at a makeshift shelter from Hurricane Patricia, in the Pacific resort city Puerto Vallarta

A tourist, who was evacuated from her hotel arrive at the University of Puerto Vallarta used as a shelter as Hurricane Patricia approaches the Pacific beach resort of Puerto Vallarta

Code red: A handout picture released by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on October 23 shows a rainbow colored image of Hurricane Patricia as it approaches the coastline of Mexico from the Eastern Pacific with 200mph winds

Before making landfall, the hurricane-strength winds covered a circle around the storm with a diameter of 70 miles, and tropical storm winds were sweeping across a circular area 350 miles wide.

Experts say the effects of Patricia could be comparable to Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 dead or missing in the Philippines two years ago.

'It's looking like a very bad disaster is shaping up,' said MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel. 

In Puerto Vallarta, a resort town with a population of 250,000, loudspeakers blared orders to evacuate hotels as a light rain fell and a slight breeze ruffled palm trees. The streets emptied as police sirens wailed. Several exclusive resorts favored by billionaires and celebrities are also in the firing line.

'Everyone is running, all the grocery stores are already sold out,' said local worker Ramona Delgado, who also described 10ft waves crashing into the shore. 

The lowest recorded atmospheric pressure inside the storm is 880mb, which makes it the strongest hurricane in history -  breaking the previous record of 882mb held by 2005’s Hurricane Wilma. 

The strongest storm ever recorded is 1979's Typhoon Tip which had an atmospheric pressure of 870mb, however its maximum windspeed was 5mph slower than Patricia. Typhoon Nancy of 1961 holds the record for highest wind speed at 215mph. 

Hotel workers said this afternoon that efforts had begun to start evacuating guests, but others said they were still waiting to be told where to send them.

The lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in Puerto Vallarta was bustling Friday morning, with a long line of people forming to check out. More than 900 guests had rooms at the hotel the previous evening, but many wanted to get out of town before the storm arrived. Evacuation is made more difficult by the three airports in the area shutting down for the hurricane.

Local schools were also closed and some business owners were busy boarding and taping up windows. The Federal Electricity Commission said it was planning electricity shutdowns from around 1pm in the states of Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit.

Long lines of traffic stretched out of Puerto Vallarta en route to the major city of Guadalajara, around a five-hour drive inland.

Aristoteles Sandoval, the governor of the state of Jalisco, expected about 15,000 people to be evacuated from Puerto Vallarta.

Mexico's communications and transport minister, Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, said the hurricane is of 'colossal' proportions, and urged people to protect themselves.

'It's a danger to the coastlines, and a danger to the population,' he said.

The government warned that ash and other material from the volcano of Colima, about 130miles from Puerto Vallarta, could combine with massive rainfall to trigger 'liquid cement'-style mudflows that could envelop nearby villages.  

Heading for landfall: Hurricane Patricia moved towards the western coast of Mexico and is set to slowly move north east 

The cities of Puerto Vallarta - a popular resort town - and Manzanillo are facing high-to-extreme risk to lives and property from Hurricane Patricia 

Seen from space: A satellite image of Hurricane Patricia released by the Earth Science Office of NASA Friday shows the storm creeping towards southwest Mexico  

Preparations: A worker boards up the front of a waterfront business Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Friday

Getting ready: An employee of a car rental company tapes up a glass door as he prepares for Hurricane Patricia in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Displaced: A man leaves his house in Boca de Pascuales, Colima State, Mexico before the arrival of Hurricane Patricia

Patricia has maximum sustained winds of close to 200mph, dwarfing the power of the 1959 Mexico hurricane, which with winds of 160mph is the next most powerful to make landfall in this part of the Pacific. 

Forecasters have similarly warned of catastrophic and 'deadly' mudslides today as the storm tears it way towards land, bringing with it the risk of flash flooding. 

When Patricia reaches Mexico it will be just the second Pacific Category 5 hurricane to make landfall ever.

Meteorologists said Patricia's incredibly small eight-mile-wide eye wall would likely contract later in the day - a normal process that often weakens a storm slightly. But that may not be completely good news, because it would make the overall size of the storm slightly larger, said Jim Kossin, an atmospheric scientist for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

In addition to an expected eye wall contraction, winds that restrain a storm are starting to pick up, so Patricia was predicted to weaken a bit to winds of about 175mph at landfall - which would still be a top-of-the-chart hurricane, said Jeff Masters, a former hurricane hunter meteorologist.

Kossin called Patricia 'a three-pronged hazard' that will likely wreak havoc with high winds, salt water storm surge and inland freshwater flooding from heavy rains.

During a UN briefing in Geneva, World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman Clare Nullis compared the monster storm to Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,300 people in the Philippines and wiped out or damaged practically everything in its path as it swept ashore on November 8, 2013, destroying around 90 per cent of the city of Tacloban in Leyte province.

Describing Patricia's strength, Nullis said: 'The winds are enough to get a plane in the air and keep it flying.' 

The strongest storm ever recorded was Cyclone Tip which hit Japan in 1979.  

In Mexico, officials declared a state of emergency in dozens of municipalities in Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco states that contain the bustling port of Manzanillo and the resort of Puerto Vallarta.

The director of Mexico's National Water Commission said Friday that the looming monster storm is powerful enough to lift up automobiles, destroy homes that are not sturdily built with cement and steel and will be able to drag along people caught outside when the hurricane strikes. 

The governor of Colima ordered schools closed on Friday, when the storm was forecast to make what the Hurricane Center called a 'potentially catastrophic landfall'.

According to the 2010 census, there were more than 7.3million people in Jalisco state and more than 255,000 in Puerto Vallarta municipality. There weremore than 650,000 in Colima state, and more than 161,000 in Manzanillo.

Luis Felipe Puente Espinosa, national coordinator for civil protection, said three airports located in Patricia's path - in Tepic, in Nayarit state, Puerto Vallarta, in Jalisco state and Manzanillo, in Colima state - have been shut down.  

Race against the clock: A tourist tries to catch the last flight out of Puerto Vallata at the city's international airport 

People preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Patricia break down their souvenir shop in the Pacific resort city Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Thursday

A man boxes up his merchandise as he prepares for the arrival of Hurricane Patricia at a seafront jeweler in Puerto Vallarta Thursday

Running for their lives: Residents of Boca de Pascuales community are evacuated by local authorities before the arrival of Hurricane Patricia in Colima State

The calm before the storm: View of street at Boca de Pascuales, Colima State, as residents are evacuated by local authorities

An employee rolls up matts at a Sheraton beachfront hotel as staff prepare for the coming superstorm 

As Hurricane Patricia approaches, a man dozes on his luggage while waiting for a bus out of town at the bus station in the Pacific resort city Puerto Vallarta Friday

Men fill small bags with sand from the beach as they prepare for the arrival of Patricia in Puerto Vallarta Friday,

Framed by luggage, a toddler sits in a baby carrier as tourists wait for buses to transfer them from a conference center to a shelter

Empty shelves: People doing emergency shopping ahead the imminent arrival of Hurricane Patricia, in Puerto Vallarta

Authorities were preparing emergency shelters Thursday night and warned people in Colima, Jalisco and Michoacan to get ready for torrential rainfall, with as much as 20ins set to fall.

At a Wal-Mart in Manzanillo, shoppers filled carts with non-perishables as a steady rain fell outside.

Veronica Cabrera, shopping with her young son, said Manzanillo tends to flood with many small streams overflowing their banks. She said she had taped her windows at home to prevent them from shattering.

Alejandra Rodriguez, shopping with her brother and mother, was buying 10 liters of milk, a large jug of water and items like tuna and canned ham that do not require refrigeration or cooking. The family already blocked the bottoms of the doors at their home to keep water from entering.

Manzanillo's 'main street really floods and cuts access to a lot of other streets. It ends up like an island,' Rodriguez said. 

In Colima, authorities handed out sandbags to help residents protect their homes from flooding.

People walk along the city's historic boardwalk as Hurricane Patricia approaches the Pacific beach resort of Puerto Vallarta Friday

Businesses and homes in Puerto Vallarta have already boarded up windows and several local flights have been cancelled

Warnings from the National Hurricane Center said: 'Hurricane conditions are expected to first reach the hurricane warning area this afternoon. Tropical storm conditions are expected to first reach the warning areas early today, making outside preparations difficult or dangerous. 

'Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion. Hurricane conditions are possible in the hurricane watch area late today.

'Patricia is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of six to 12 inches, with isolated maximum amounts of 20 inches, over the Mexican states of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero through Saturday. These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides.

'An extremely dangerous storm surge is expected to produce significant coastal flooding near and to the right of where the center makes landfall. Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.' 

Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen, of the Hurricane Center in Miami, said Patricia also poses problems for Texas. Forecast models indicate that after the storm breaks up over land, remnants of its tropical moisture will likely combine with and contribute to heavy rainfall that is already soaking Texas independently of the hurricane, he said.

'It's only going to make a bad situation worse,' he said.

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