Hurricane Patricia Gives the Mexican President a Rare Chance to Look Good David Agren - VICE News
go to original October 27, 2015

Patricia flattened a fishing hamlet on Mexico's Pacific coast, but authorities were relieved to see that the record-breaking hurricane largely spared the country and dissipated as it moved north. (AFP/PigMine2)

Hurricane Patricia promised to pack an unprecedented punch as it hit Mexico's Pacific coast last Friday evening with winds of more than 160 miles per hour, but the storm petered out quickly after crashing into the steep western Sierra Madre mountains.

The damage, in the end, was largely limited to a few coastal communities, jetsetter hideaways and coconut groves along a thinly populated stretch of the Costa Alegre, or Happy Coast. The official death toll stayed stuck on zero.

"The damage done was nothing like what was expected," President Enrique Peña Nieto said on Monday. "The absence of lives lost owes much to the faith of Mexicans in themselves, and in the way we united to produce the strength that helped avoid disaster."

The president's unusually buoyant tone reflected the accolades his government received for rapidly mobilizing soldiers and civil protection agencies, opening shelters and evacuating thousands from coastal areas.

The praise contrasted with the intense criticism that has followed inept responses to natural phenomena in the past. The misery Tropical Storm Manuel brought to the resort city of Acapulco two years ago when working class barrios were flooded out — and later revealed to have been built by developers with improper permits — was one such case.

Hurricane Patricia also provided a rare chance for the president to gloat at the expense of some of his most committed opponents who struggle to view him outside of the widespread distrust in his administration — plagued by his aloof response to past crises ranging from the disappearance of 43 students after they were attacked by police to evidence of conflict of interest scandals involving his own family.

Read the rest at VICE News

Related: Mexico Government: It's Raining on Peña Nieto (Mexico Voices)

Related: Hurricane Patricia: Bill Gates, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cindy Crawford Have Mexico Mansions Destroyed (Reuters)

Related: AmeriCares Team Arrives in Mexico in Wake of Patricia (Or-Politics.com)

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