"Divine Intervention" in Hurricane Patricia

Hurricane Patricia, the Pacific’s strongest storm to ever make landfall dissipated rapidly on October 23rd and 24th; leaving minor damage, heavy rains...and a big question...what happened?
Why didn’t the storm cause the predicted devastation? The only other Category 5 to hit Mexico’s Pacific coast struck nearby Puerto Vallarta in 1959 and killed 1,800 people.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meteorologists said that unusually warm Pacific waters and the lack of wind shear caused Patricia’s 24 hour jump from Tropical Storm status, into a Category 5 with 200 mile per hour sustained winds.
But what broke the biggest Pacific hurricane to ever strike land? Why did no one die?
When the storm arrived at 6:15 PM on the 23rd, it touched land in a remote area of southwest Mexico called Cuixmala in Jalisco state.
NOAA spokesman, Dennis Feltgen, cited high mountains as the reason why Patricia fell from Category 5 strength to a “remnant low” in just 21 hours.
But many locals tell a different story.
The governor of Jalisco Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz was asked by TV Azteca Jalisco, “Do you think that the alert call for people to get to cover helped prevent losses?” He responded,
“Yes, without a doubt, the collaboration of people was essential, but there was something else out there. I say that God helped the people of Jalisco. Something divine happened".
Reporter/Editor: Jeff Rogers - GNI [Grassroots News International]
Interviewer: Chris Edwards
Research: Hannah Koki
Photo: Pablo Vargas
Footage: Tráfico ZMG
Maps: N.O.A.A.