Thousands of tourists in Hurricane Patricia's path

Tens of thousands of US tourists are among those in the path of a monster hurricane bearing down on the Mexican beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, officials said Friday. Hurricane Patricia has grown to be the strongest storm on record in the Western Hemisphere and Mexico is braced for a catastrophic event as it makes landfall later Friday. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said US authorities were on stand-by to offer assistance if requested and urged Americans in the area to seek shelter. “We are obviously closely monitoring the path of Hurricane Patricia and its potential impact on US citizens who are in the affected area,” he said. Toner noted that Puerto Vallarta is a popular destination for American tourists and warned that the city’s airport has already been shut as a safety precaution. Precise numbers of US citizens are hard to estimate, but officials said the figure was thought to be in the tens of thousands and one dubbed the storm an “epic event.” The US consulate in Ciudad Juarez has had set up an emergency hotline and US citizens have been advised to follow the instructions of Mexican officials.