MEXICO CITY — Patricia, one of the strongest ever hurricanes, weakened Saturday to a tropical storm over Mexico after slamming into the country as a very powerful hurricane Friday evening, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Mowing down trees, flooding streets and battering buildings, Hurricane Patricia plowed into western Mexico as a Category 5 storm before grinding inland, where it rapidly lost power in the mountains that rise up along the Pacific coast.
The storm’s maximum winds were 50 mph, the Hurricane Center said.