Super-Hurricane Patricia About to Strike SW Mexico Coast

When I finally dragged my sorry old body out of bed this morning, Melissa had already been up for a few hours and had an impressive news story ready for me: a new hurricane is about to hit Mexico.  Upon further investigation, I discovered that Hurricane Patricia, with sustained winds of 200 mph, is already the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere.  Formed in the eastern Pacific, it will soon hit the southwestern Mexico coast between the cities of Manzanillo (pop. 110,000, Colima State) and Puerto Vallarta (pop. 200,000, Jalisco State).  The former city is the major port outlet for Mexico City's trade in the Pacific, and the latter is a major tourist center.  Patricia, once inland, is expected to miss the large city of Guadalajara (pop. 1.5 million) to the west, but this storm, although relatively small for the concentrated force around its eye, will most likely devastate a large area of land.  The good folks at The Weather Channel are predicting that the brunt of Patricia's tornado-level winds will miss major populated areas, but there are still coastal villages between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo that will be subjected to those winds and a strong ocean surge.  Once it is inland and weakening, I expect that the main damage and danger to lives will be heavy flooding as it will dump its water over a mountainous area with valleys...