Patricia goes from hurricane to tropical storm to tropical depression

Image 1 of 10

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (AP) --  The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Hurricane Patricia has weakened to a tropical depression Saturday.

The storm was downgraded earlier in the morning from a category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm. But Patricia's winds then fell to about 35 miles per hour, and turned into a tropical depresson.

The storm made landfall Friday evening on Mexico's Pacific coast as a monstrous Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (270 kph).

But it is rapidly losing steam as it moves over a mountainous region just inland from the shore.

Late Friday, its center was about 50 miles (75 kilometers) southeast of the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, where rain began to fall harder than it had all day but there was still no sign of strong winds.

Mexican authorities have received reports of some flooding and landslides after powerful Hurricane Patricia came ashore in a relatively unpopulated stretch of Pacific coast.

Mexican Transportation Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza says officials have been bracing for the worst and are "not declaring victory" just yet.

Patricia's center made landfall in an area of Jalisco state with few population centers. The nearest big city, Manzanillo, was outside the extent of the storm's hurricane-force winds.

TV news reports from the coast show some toppled trees and lampposts and flooded streets.

Patricia's projected path now takes it over a mountainous region dotted with isolated hamlets that are at risk for mudslides and flash floods.