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Clean Up Efforts Underway After Tropical Storm Roslyn Batters Tourist Town in Mexico

Published: October 24, 2022
Roslyn struck the Mexican town of Puerto Vallarta as a category 3 hurricane in the early hours of October 23, 2022. (Image: Screenshot via Reuters)

Residents of the touristic town of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico cleaned up rubble and debris from the streets and the beach after Storm Roslyn passed through in the early hours of Sunday, Oct. 23.

Roslyn hit land as a powerful Category 3 hurricane at 5:20 a.m. local time near Santa Cruz in northern Nayarit, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, a Pacific coastal state home to popular tourist beaches like Sayulita and Punta Mita, both located north of Puerto Vallarta.

By midday, however, Roslyn was downgraded to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds that decreased to near 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour) with stronger gusts. More rapid weakening was expected as the storm moved across west-central Mexico, the NHC said.

Only minor damage was reported in neighboring Jalisco, according to the state’s governor. The busy international Puerto Vallarta airport resumed all operations.

Beaches along the coast remained closed as the NHC warned of swells that were “likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”

Mexican tourist in Puerto Vallarta Milton Moreno told Reuters that despite the wind and rains, the precautions carried out by tourism workers were excellent.

Two people died from destruction caused by Storm Roslyn near Mexico’s Pacific coast, authorities said, and heavy rains and flash flooding continued even as the storm weakened while moving inland.

A 74-year-old man was killed in the town of Mexcaltitan de Santiago Ixcuintla when a beam fell on his head, Nayarit state’s Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection told Reuters. A 39-year-old woman also died when a fence collapsed in the state’s Rosamorada district.

Roslyn was forecast to become a tropical depression by Sunday evening and dissipate overnight or early Monday, Oct. 24.

Heavy rainfall and flooding were expected to continue in some areas of the storm’s path, the NHC said. Up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rain was expected on the upper coast of Jalisco and Nayarit. Southeastern Sinaloa and southern Durango into southwestern Zacatecas could see as much as 8 inches of rain.

By Reuters. (Production: Jose Luis Osorio, Manuel Carrillo, Nina Lopez)