Hurricane Patricia, which at one point had 200 mph winds and was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the western hemisphere, has weakened after making landfall in Mexico on Friday and moving to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The storm caused flooding in Mexico and widespread power outages, but no one was killed.
The Mexican government was prepared to deal with the hurricane. Officials have learned lessons from other natural disasters in recent years. Evacuations were ordered and shelters set up. The storm weakened as it made landfall. Although the effects were devastating in some areas, they were not as severe as many people had feared.
In Texas, over a foot of rain fell near Fort Worth, 9 inches around Houston, and 5 inches around Austin. The rain allowed firefighters to contain the rest of the Hidden Pines fire, which had burned over 4,500 acres of land. The heavy rains caused several traffic accidents and a train derailment. Many roads have been reopened, but some areas are still dangerous because of the water.
Flash flood warnings were posted on Sunday for southeastern Texas, Louisiana, and parts of Mississippi. Both Baton Rouge and New Orleans got over 8.5 inches of rain on Sunday. The storm had weakened slightly and moved east by Sunday evening.
The worst of the storm is over, but problems were expected to continue in some areas into Monday. The storm was expected to cause damaging winds and possible tornadoes in southern Louisiana before moving on to Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle.