Lidia dissipates after killing 2, injuring 2 near Mexico resort

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Lidia dissipated Wednesday after hitting land as a Category 4 hurricane near the resort of Puerto Vallarta.

One person was killed by a falling tree, another drowned in a swollen river and two others were injured after the hurricane made landfall.

The hurricane knocked over trees and blew roofs off houses with winds as high as 140 mph (220 kph) before moving inland.

Laura Velázquez, the head of Mexico's civil defence system, said Wednesday that one person died on the northern outskirts of Puerto Vallarta after being hit by a falling tree, and two others were injured elsewhere in the area.

The governor of Jalisco state, Enrique Alfaro, said another man drowned in a town south of where the hurricane hit when he tried to cross a swollen river late Tuesday night.

The US National Hurricane Center said Wednesday that Lidia's winds were down to 35 mph (57 kph) as it dissipated about 145 miles (235 kilometres) north-northeast of the city of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city and the capital of the western state of Jalisco.

Lidia made landfall Tuesday on Cabo Corrientes, a sparsely populated peninsula, and then moved inland south of Puerto Vallarta with winds of 105 mph (165 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center.

The hurricane remained powerful even after moving over land, with some highways briefly blocked in the region. Jalisco state had 23 shelters open, and the Puerto Vallarta city government said a few dozen people had gone to shelters there.

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