Portal:Tropical cyclones/Featured article/Hurricane Pauline

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Hurricane Pauline was one of the strongest and deadliest Pacific hurricanes to make landfall on Mexico. The 16th tropical storm, 8th hurricane, and 7th major hurricane of the 1997 Pacific hurricane season, Pauline developed out of a tropical wave on October 5 about 250 miles (410 km) south-southwest of Huatulco in the state of Oaxaca. It initially moved eastward, then turned northwestward and quickly strengthened to reach peak winds of 135 mph. It paralleled the Mexican coastline a short distance offshore before weakening and hitting Puerto Escondido on October 9, and dissipated the next day.

Pauline produced torrential rainfall along the Mexican coastline, peaking at 16 inches in Acapulco. Intense flooding and mudslides in some of the poorest areas of Mexico killed between 230 to 400 people, making it one of the deadliest Eastern Pacific storms in recorded history. The passage of the hurricane destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of houses, leaving around 300,000 homeless and causing $7.5 billion in damage (1997 USD, 80 million 1997 MXN pesos, $9.3 billion (2006 USD).

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