strongest hurricane ever and authorities say it still poses a serious threat. the big concern now is from the rain and mudslides which would be caused from that rain which is still falling across many parts of this country. mexico's president has expressed some cautious optimism. in a video a few hours ago addressed to the nation he reminded everyone to remain caution. puerto vallarta was expected to bear the brunt of the storm. our martin savidge was there reporting and he now brings a sigh of relief. >> rain has been falling on puerto vallarta for a number of hours now but what they did not get is what they feared, and that's the full impact of patricia. we did not see hurricane winds or a storm surge. both of which could have been catastrophic in a city that's so full of high-rise hotels and homes built along the waterfront. of course it's going to be weeks. it would be safe to say any nation would have struggled with that short lead-up time and on top of that the catastrophic winds and the potential for destruction. the united states, most structures are built to a 50-mile-an-hour category. this storm well exceeded that. the challenges for the government were, one, trying to get people out of the way, and in some cases it might have been just get them away from the water's edge. in other places it was let's move them to cities. they tried do that, moving americans to guadalajara. the rest, they were asked to shelter where they could. there were indications that they were placing heavy earth-moving equipment ahead of the storm, realizing the need that you get landslides, you get debris. the only way they can get through is if the roads are open and that's one of the primary things you have to do. they say that there are about 15,000 tourists that were evacuated. many of them were sent off to place like guadalajara, other major cities or bussed to other locations to get them out of the storm's path. others were set up in hotel rooms. they were not quite so nice but they were in solid structure and that was the best way to handle things. the lights have remained on. there's no significant reports of severe damage in puerto vallarta and that's good news. there is damage elsewhere and there's an extent of damage at least which can be seen in the darkness. there seems to be structures, even significant structures knocked over. i'm talking about bricks and cement. the concern is in puerto vallarta, the rain, elsewhere, the daylight will reveal the damage. back to you. >> martin, thank you for that report. of course, tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate including thousands of tourists. earlier i spoke to the general manager alt the st. regents hotel north of puerto vallarta. and he told me why he took the decision to evacuate every single guest from his hotel. >> upon receiving the communication from the local government authorities, we took immediate steps to secure the safety of our guests, and we got that message on thursday night and by friday morning at 8:30 we had them all evacuated to guadalajara which is about a four-hour drive from here. since then we've had inclement weather, lots of rain. thankfully in this part of the region, john, not much damage. we're hoping within the next 24 to 48 hours to return to the property, but that's about an update down here. >> you say the guests made the trip to safety but i guess the staff stayed behind along with yourself. can you explain what it was like? i imagine you're expecting the worst and when that didn't happen, clearly there must have been a huge amount of relief. >> yeah. it was hearing all the forecasts and what was potentially coming up front was indeed a little scary, but, you know, the comfort of our guests and follow ing stalwart's policies, that was it. that's what we're trained for and that's what the team was trained for to do and are passionate about. it's making guests happy. that's what we do. also to take care of the property with a team here just in case anything else could go wrong here. >> i'm just wondering if you could comment on the preparation that you've seen so far by the mexican government because clearly there wasn't a lot of warning when this storm came in. it intensified very quickly from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane in about 24 hours how do you think the local authorities handled all of this? what was your assessment? >> i think it was ex-emplary, john, to tell you the truth. i think the manner in which they communicated it is time to move, and those that did, i think, are happier hothoteliers and those hotel rooms. having that communication with enough time for you to react and the right message, i think that's crucial in these type of situations. >> reporter: that was carl emberson speaking to me a short time ago. to get the size and scope of the storm, we need to go above. nasa took some images. one was taken at noon eastern time on friday. you can see the eye of the storm there clearly made out. of course, patricia was moving at a clip of 10 miles per hour at that stage. it was a fairly compact storm, 30, 40 miles out from the storm but a very powerful one at that. let's find out exactly where hurricane patricia is right now and exactly how much damage it can do and the concerns. once again we go to karen at the weather center. karen, what's going on now? we have rain coming down and i guess we're on the trailing edges of the storm. >> yes. but in no way does this hurricane, category 2, it has weakened so much. when we were looking aet it 24 hours ago when the national hurricane center said this is unprecedent and this is one of those sneaker hurricanes. back in 1959 it took over part of this general region. they called it the sneaker hurricane because it just blew up. exactly what this did. right now barely a category 2, higher gusts. i want to point out this one area. we have a cluster to the south of manza nia and also south of guadalaja guadalajara. puerto vallarta, you'll see a couple manufacture showers. that's not to say it's all said and done. it's not. the ground is saturated. we'll still expect more rainfall but this is not that power house system that we were looking at. the storm that will probably have some arguments taos whether it was the strongest all-time hurricane everywhere, but we did see reports of in excess of 10 inches of rainfall and that will produce mudslides and landslides. i want to show you what happened. there are those coastal range. they acted as a buffer if you will. not entirely. but 200-mile-an-hour winds that slammed onshore and wrung out the mourt here. with were expecting between 10 and 20 inches. that's not to say we won't see those amounts because this made landfall about 6:30 lom time and because that was the impending darkness. and now we're looking at, you know, sunrise taking place here in the next couple of hours, and that's when you can assess all the damage. and it is a beautiful spochlt that's why tourists flock there. but with a category 5 that was this ferocious? now some of that moisture is sneaking its way into texas. so from one disaster to another and from dallas all the way down to san antonio, this is what we're looking at. along that interstate 35, interstate 45, we're looking at the flood disasters for the weekend. that will be a secondary big story from the dallas/f-ft. wor area toward houston, san antonio. some areas could pick up as much as 15 inches of rainfall. we have flash flood watches, warnings, and all kinds of highwater rescues taking place just to the south of dallas. this has really been a big story that hasn't played so high lately because we have talked about the all-time strongest hurricane in the western hemisphere, maybe of all time. we'll have to compare that with typhoon tip back in the late '70s. that was in the western pacific. and, john, that's one of those systems that we'll make strong comparisons and scientists will look at this and meteorologists assessing what's going to be happening and see if it's the all-time worst that we've ever seen. back to you. >> reporter: okay. still early days, of course. but the big concern, immediate concern, flooding, landslide, mudslides. it certainly isn't over yet. thank you, karen. of course, a lot of the impact of hurricane patricia played out on social media as they normally do. let's go to london and go to lawy laurie segall. there are many snap shots from tourists of how they were dealing with. >> yeah. there was a resident named martinez. she was thrilled because her labrador came home and wasn't harmed. she sent this tweet. thank you to whoever gave us shelter. our two guests are asleep. they're usin using #hurricanepatricia, # patricia. there you're looking at the tweet now. you're seeing some relief. whether it's pets be okay, family be okay. the office of the president also deployed workers i'm translating that. tonight i acknowledge the work of thousands of servants who are deployed in affected arias. obviously they're working so hard to make sure people are safe and sheltered. the rid cross also tweeted. this is a reminder. they wanted to remind people despite the downgrade the storm is still dangerous. there's a lot of relief that the storm is downgraded but you have to remember you have all these folks in these areas that might not be 100% safe. people need to be very cautious still. another tweet from the red cross. they're talking about having ambulances and relief supplies ready to go, ready to be deployed in case anyone needs them. they use obviously th the #patricia. you're looking at images of that right there. and then, you know, john, one of the most touching parts of the storm is watching all of this support. you're seeing people use t the #prayformexico. one tweet that's particularly interesting. astronaut scott kelly, he's tweeting from space as you guys have probably mentioned earlier, showing images. he says patricia's force isn't lost on me. my thoughts are with friends and all in mexico and he's signing off from space saying good night. you also have relief here. they're putting out video, shocking shid owe saying this is right as hurricane patricia has touched land. it says our team is already on the way to the affected area. you know, as we see during this disaster, social media has been really important in getting word out, tweeting maps of shelters o so people have an idea where to go. oftentimes when people don't know where to turn, they go to their devices, facebook and twitter and that's where the messages are getting out, john. >> reporter: it's become so important, so much more so than you could have imagined a few years ago. laurie, thanks so much for that. of course, we'll have much more coverage of patricia in the coming hours. in the meantime let's go back to our london studios and fred. >> thank you so much, john voros, in mexico. the worst of the storm may not be over . coming up, an attack in the ban la dash capital. plus u.s. secretary of state john kerry meets with russia and syria in trying to end the civil war there. that's coming up. orrexion® 5 in. proven to hydrate dryness, illuminate dullness, lift sagging, diminish the look of dark spots, and smooth the appearance of wrinkles. high performance skincare™ only from roc®. i'm john voros. patricia has now weakened to a category 2 storm with sustained winds of up to 165 kilometers per hour and earlier nasa released these still shots of patricia as it closed in on mexico as a record-breaking category 5 storm. you u can see the eye with the intense rain wrapped around it. earlier we heard from a u.s. air force pilot who flew inside the hurricane to report its wind speed. >> there's a lot of rain associated with the storm obviously. the eye was very well defined and very well wrapped around, i guess you could say. and so penetrating the wall was, like i said, severe turbulence and a lot of rain, and it was a small eye wall, so we had to work really quickly to drop the weather instruments. usually in a storm you have an eye that's 30 nautical miles so you have more time to work on dropping your weather instrum t instruments. in this case, everything happened so quickly with a small eye like that. there's a lot going on, and we were just having to work as a crew together and deal with the task at hand and back each other up all the way. it was a pretty intense ride, but overall it worked out and we got some good data out of it. i would expect this going in to patricia, but this was definitely the most severe storm i've flown to date. normally when you break out in the eye, you have what you call the stadium effect, so you'd see the whole eyewall from inside the eye and it's a pretty good picture, clear skies. we didn't have any of that. we could see lightning flashes, and that was pretty much it. >> reporter: in so many ways it seems hurricane patricia is one for the record books. we'll have much more of our coverage of the storm, fred. but back to you in the meantime. >> thank you very much, john. absolutely amazing to hear from that pilot who flew into the eye of the storm. we'll check back in with you very shortly, but first we have some other stories to quiet you up to speed on. one person is dead and dozens others wounded outside a bangladesh city. this happened as muslims gathered to celebrate their holy day. they say their priority right now is to identify the victims of a fiery road that killed nearly 40 people on friday. a bus co-lied with a truck. a truck driver and his young son were also among those kids. eight people survived including the bus driver. the french president said he's plug jed into sadness. it's the worst road accident in france in at least three decades. >> usa secretary of state john kerry has had a very busy week. he met with russia's prime minister and currently at this hour he's in jordan to meet with kick abdullah and also mahmoud abbas. kerry said there may be a way to defuse the violence in israel which has killed northeasterly 60 people this month alone. and our own senior national correspondent ben wedeman joins me live in jerusalem to talk about the violence happening there. ben, the big question, of course, is is this flare-up going to continue or do we think it might be dying down? >> reporter: well, all eyes, fred, are on the meeting. secretary of state john kerry is meeting with king abdullah and in about an hour and a half, they'll try to bring all the parties together again. we understand the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu would like both the jordanian and palestinian leaders to report this status quo, this unwritten arrangement that exists on the temple mount remains intact, but today, of course, they have been saying particularly -- the palestinian president has been saying for weeks that israel is trying to change the status quo to allow, for instance, for more jewish visitors to the temple mount. they're worried it's going to be divided. it will be interesting to see if secretary kerry can actually pull this off. of course, the violence has been going on for more than three weeks. more than 50 people have been killed as a result. and when you go around the west bank as we did yesterday, you seem to be going from one clash to another. so the terrain isn't very promising at the moment, but secretary kerry has been very busy trying to some how tamp down the flames this time. fred? >> what about people that you're speaking to? as you said, you've been in the west bang. did people have any sort of hope that politicians are actually listening to them? >> reporter: well, there is sort of a general feeling that, for instance, the current palestinian leadership is out of touch with the street. mahmoud abbas is nearly 80 years oil. many people will tell you he's run out of ideas and that he doesn't really speak for the street. you have to realize, you know, you go to these clashes, and a lot of them -- i covered the second one. there are clashes with people in their late teens, early 20s at these events. now you go there, you see kids 8, 9, 10, 11 years old there, in addition, teenagers as well. and it seems there's sort of a disconnection between the generation that's out there throwing the stones and shooting the marbles with their slingshots as opposed to the leaders who have vip passes drive around in mercedes around the west bank. fred? >> senior national correspondent ben wedeman, thanks very much for that update from jerusalem. south africa's president says the government will not hike university fees next year as students have been demanding in week-long protests. but jacob zuma canceled a meeting. some demonstrators responded. students have been protesting the high cost of education with some even calling for free tuition. now thousands of tourists heading to mexico for sunshine found themselves in the path of that devastating hurricane. coming up we'll hear from an american now spending her vacation in a shelter, coming up. welcome back to our viewers around the world and, of course, the united states. we're updating you on hurricane patricia. it's downgraded but still highly dangerous. i'm fred flight begin joined by john voros live in guadalajara. john, what's the situation? >> reporter: well, fred, u.s. forces are predicti ining bra ta could dump as much as a foot of rain. and in some areas, it may be even double that. there wasn't a lot of warning when it came in. it was a category 5. it's now moving inland as a category 2 hurricane. thousands have been forced from their homes but others have been waiting it out. it's fair to say there's a lot of relief from the country from the president on down. he says so far damage has been much less than feared, but we must note it is still early and it is still dark. when the sun comes up. we'll know a lot more. luis vallertin was in guadalajara. she was there with her boyfriend. they went to that town for a wedding. we spoke with her a little earlier on what her whole ordeal was like. >> i do not think we got enough of a warning. i know it was heading off the coast toward us. obviously the hotel staff was talking about, you know, what they could possibly do to prepare, but when we woke up this morning, most of the guests had no idea what the hotel was planning in terms of an ee vanilla yags. one of the managers was actually going around telling guests there was a meeting going on around 1:00 a.m. and that we had a half an hour to evacuate. we were told to bring one small bag with essentials and everything else should be left at the hotel room. it was a bit of chaos in the morning but by afternoon things got more organized. again, they could have warned us the night before or woke us up to tell us what was going on. the wind -- as we were going through town there was significant flooding in some parts of town. some parts were lower so some streets have at least three feet of water in there. the higher roads, there was. much damage there. just a lot of water everywhere thankfully. the hotel we went to was a concrete structure and there was a lot of mountains around it. the towns were deserted. there were a couple of flooded streets but it doesn't seem to be a lot of major damage to the structures. i did see some police -- patrol cars just making sure that everybody was off the streets and not in the way of danger, but everything else as you can imagine at this point. >> that was louisa valentin of new jersey. mexico's red cross has been collecting donations since thursday but officials are waiting to see the full impact before asserting where to direct those resources, and we got the very latest from a spokeswoman, from the federation of the red cross. >> the red cross is clearly of assistance to the government. so they have been mobilizing assistance since yesterday. they have mobilized relief items including food items and blankets and it's close to the coastal area, and they have mobilized response teams as well. they're waiting for the impact of the hurricane in order to start make iing assessments and identify immediate needs. there are around 50,000 people have been evacuated around the coastal area. evacuation centers have been set up and are equipped to shelter approximately 258,000 people. also the red cross has established a donation center in in mexico city to capture all donated items for the affected people. >> reporter: we've compiled a list of sources. for more information, please head over to our website cnn.com/impact and find out how you can help. of course, a lot more on hurricane patricia later in this hour, but in the meantime back to london and fred pleitgen for all the other day's news. thanks, fred. >> thanks, john. ahead, we're learning more of a military aid to rescue dozens of hostages and how it cost one commando his life. also, on the benghazi hearing, hillary clinton was all smiles. we'll look at the poll numbers. that's coming up. you rally the team. we give you relief from your cough. you give them a case of the giggles. tylenol® cold helps relieve even your worst cold & flu symptoms. so you can give them everything you've got. tylenol® your loving touch stimulates his senses and nurtures his mind. the johnson's scent, lather, and bubbles help enhance the experience. so why just clean your baby, when you can give him so much more? [female announcer] if the most is the staying awake part, day sleep train has your ticket to a better night's sleep. because when brands compete, you save during mattress price wars. save up to $400 on beautyrest and posturepedic. get interest-free financing until 2018 on tempur-pedic. plus, helpful advice from the sleep experts. don't miss mattress price wars at sleep train. ♪ sleep train ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ welcome back, folks, to our ongoing special coverage of hurricane patricia. now, patricia has now been downgraded to a category 2 storm but not before it slammed into southwestern mexico saturday night as a category 5, which is the fiercest level. forecasters warn it is still a very powerful storm and flooding and mudslides remain the big threat as it continues across the country. mexico's president is urging people in its path to stay in shelters. daring hostage rescue mission left one u.s. commando forces person dead but also dozens saved by execution. jim sciutto has the latest. >> reporter: faced with the first u.s. combat death in iraq in four years, pentagon secretary ash carter made clear u.s. troops will continue to face danger there. >> the administration has taken great pains, the president in great permations, it's not a combat. >> there's no question about it. i don't want anybody to be under any illusions about that. >> joshua l. wheel e 39 of rowland, oklahoma, a 20-year veteran, was a member of the elite delta force. the deadly battle was the first time u.s. forces have directly engaged isis fighters on the ground in iraq. in a joint operation with kurdish commandos, u.s. special operators from the delta force raided an isis compound. rescued hostages thought to be in imminent danger of execution. they formed staging camps and bridges in the area and five helicopters brought in nearly 30 u.s. forces and 40 kurdish troops. the u.s. were not meant to enter the walled compound or directly engage the isis fighters but when kurdish forces inside the come pound were your wemed the u.s. made the decision to enter the fire fight. major sergeant wheeler was shot in the compound and trance importanted to the hospital where he later died. when it was over the u.s. helicopters overhead destroyed the compound. under current rules of engagement, they're allowed to return fire when they or their partner forces come under attack. >> when a fire fight ensued, this american ran to the sound of the guns and all the indications are it was his actions and that of one of his teammates that protected those who were involved in breaching the compound. >> this risky mission was launched at u.s. military officials after u.s. surveillance spotted freshly dug mass graves inside the compound. nearly 20 u.s. hostages, 20 iraqi civilians and isis members accused by their own group of spying. defense secretary carter said he was proud of master sergeant wheeler. he said in his words he ran to the sound of the guns. he made d decision to go into the fire fight. he lost his life for it but secretary carter said as well there will continue to be risky missions like this for u.s. forces in iraq. he said they will continue to be in harm's way. jim sciutto, cnn, washington. and u.s. democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton was all smiles as she returned to the campaign trail after -- one day after 11 grueling hours of questioning on capitol hill. house committee grilled the former secretary of state on her handling of a dead hi attack on the u.s. diplomatic compound in eastern libya. republicans as you might imagine weren't satisfied with clinton's answers but many analysts say she emerged from the hearing largely unscathed. clinton mentioned the hearing friday while addressing a women's leadership forum. >> it's been quite a week, hasn't it. well, thank you all so much. i am absolutely delighted to be here. as some of you may know, i had a pretty long day yesterday. >> and another thing that might delight hillary clinton, a new poll released by the quinnipiac university, hillary clinton has recaptured the lead among likely democratic caucusvoters in the state of iowa. 51% backed clinton while 40% support her rival vermont senator bernie sanders. and we have some news from the world of baseball. kansas city royals are heading to the world series for a second year in a row after defeating toronto blue jays, 4-3 on friday. the royals will play the new york mets with the first game of the world championship happening on tuesday. a lot of people can't wait for that. coming up, climate storms like hurricane patricia. we'll discuss whether they're connected. that's coming up next. welcome back. i'm fred plight finn. we want to update you on hurricane patricia. the storm has weakened again and is now considered a category 1 hurricane, but, of course, idiot did make landfall on the pacific coast and is record as the most. patricia is still highly dangerous. right now flooding and mudslides are among the main concerns. and even though it's rapidly weakening, our experts still call hurricane patricia, quote, historic because before it made landfall, it was the strongest storm ever measured in the western hemisphere and it was also the second strongest storm ever observed globally behind typhoon tip in the western hemisphere in 1979. hurricane patricia had the strongest winds ever observed, and when it was over the western pacific the storm intensified very, very quickly, one of the fattest on record. at 12:01 thursday patricia was a tropical storm and then at 5:30 a.m. friday morning it had become a category 5 hurricane just to give you an idea how fast it's all happened. now it's been downgrade 24d hours late to just a category 1 which, of course, still very, very dangerous. the official magnitude of hurricane patricia has some people wondering whether climate change made this hurricane worse. as meteorologist says -- >> nearly 99% of scientists who study our climate say it's happening and it's happening because of human activities. with all the evidence we have of warming earth it's harder and harder to be a skeptic. we're talking temperature rises, ocean and ice. it's our heat waves in india that's killed thousands and we look back to 2010 where in russia tens of thousands of people were killed because of extreme heat. we're talking nine of the ten warmest years happening since 2000. 2014 was the warmest year on record with 2015 look tock set the charts as well. the ippc says that a warming planet is unequivocal. it's happened. humans are causing temperatures to rise by burning fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, specifically c02, reaching levels we haven't. as we pump more c02 into the atmosphere, the oceans are absorbing it, making it more acidic, threatening the marine life. the oceans have seen a rise in it since the industrial revolution. this is an urgent situation. this is not smgs smg that has just come to mind. it's astounding to see the facting, astounding to see the statistics, something we have never experienced before, highlighting that red flag that we need to deal with this in an urgent manner. >> derek van damme reporting there and a crucial part of it is how governments deal with them. joining us to deal with them right here in london from skype is emily wilkinson. she's a research fellow at the overseas development research institute. first of all, good morning to you. >> good morning, fred. >> there was so much talk that perhaps el nino contributed to the fact that the waters with were so warm. how can the governments react better to something like this? >> well, the mexican government has a good system and i think they've responded very well. the evacuations they've kaeed out has been really effective and so far no fatalities releitesed to this hurricane. what needs to be done is better development plan, so there are lots of people living in coastal areas who are very exposed to these events. we need to think more about locating people further inland, avoiding destruction of mangroves, which form natural barriers protecting people from these kinds of events, and considering in our development planning, how we can actually avoid some of these very extreme events having a major impact on human lives and on property. >> that's a pretty lock-term undertaking and also, of course, quite an expensive one. what does that mean, for instance, for housing construction and coastal areas and also for disaster planning? in this case it went so quickly that all of a sudden people got the evacuation order. how does this have to be dealt with in a long-term perspective? >> yeah. i mean in the short term it means that we need every season when the hurricane season is coming to work with communities to make sure to make sure they they're prepared, to make sure they know what's going to happen and that they're ready to evacuate, they know where to go, they're aware of where the evacache centers are and shelters are and they're able to move and trust in government is an important as spoeskt this, so working with communities in advance of these events will make a big difference. over the longer term, we need to think about housing on the coastal areas being lifted up on stilts. it's less likely to be affected by storm surge. we want to move some of these inland to imply regulations that are in place to keep construction from going up on coastal areas and very near areas that will be affected by storm surge in particular. in land it's about avoiding deforestation. a lot of the problems we're going to be seeing ore the next couple of days will be related to landslides and flooding and that's got to do with trees being cut down and settlements going up in places where they're on stable slopes. >> so do you find that governments from the research that you do, do you find that governments are sensitive to this issue and are taking it seriously enough because we have seen here in mexico by what we've seen so far -- we're obviously waiting for it to become day there, we've seen the response work. when you look back at hurricane katrina or typhoon high on, there were catastrophic effects and some would say urban planning neglected these risks for such a long time. >> yeah. i think that's right. and the situation in new orleans with katrina were obviously very different than mexico, which has rural areas. so evacuating people is an easier task. but i think these are questions that need to be taken more seriously by governments, and ily are serious insenn tifbs for allowing construction to go up in coastal areas. there's profit to be made, taxes to be gained. so i think it's about changing the mindset and working with governments to think about how we can improve planning to reduce exposure in the future. there's a vast population. there's a huge amount of people the world other. perhaps close to 200 million people living below 5 meters above sea level, which is a large exposed population of these kinds of events and we need to do more to try to protect those people. >> emily wilkinson, thank you so much for joining us from london. once again, i'm fred pleitgen here in london. thanks for joining us as well. we'll be right back in a moment. i'm only in my 60's. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, it could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call now to request your free decision guide. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. see why millions of people have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. don't wait. call now. hello, folks. welcome to cnn. i'm fred pleitgen in london. welcome. i'm john vause from mexico. >> we have a lot of stories. john vause is now in the weakening storm. >> reporter: yeah, fred. as quickly as this storm intensified it does seem to be weakening with winds around 75 miles per hour. but on friday when it slammed into mexico's coast it was the strongest hurricane ever recorded and authorities say it still poses a serious threat, mostly from flooding and mudslides. they're the main concerns because of the huge amount of rain which patricia is now dumping across this country. but from the president on down, there does seem to be a sense of relief and maybe some cautious optimism. the president did say in a video message a short time ago that maybe the damage isn't as bad as people had expected but he was reminding everyone here, they still needed to be careful. puerto vallarta was one town, one resort town where many were expecting to bare the brunt of this storm. martin savidge has been there for many, many hours as the storm moves in but he says people right there are breathing a sigh of relief. >> rain continues to fall on puerto vallarta. it's been doing that for a number of hours now, but what they did not get was what they much feared, and that was the full impact of hurricane patricia. we never saw hurricane wins here and we definitely did not see any kind of storm surge. both of which could have been catastrophic in a city with so many high-rise hotels built along the oceanfront. it's going to be continues for a couple of days and weeks, particularly if there's extensive damage. that's going to always be the kay. any nation would have struggled with that short lead-up time and on top of that the catastrophic winds and potential destruction. the united states which set as very high bar as far as structures and the winds they have to sustain, most are built to a 50-mile-an-hour category. this storm well exceeded that. so the challenges for the government were, one, trying to get people out of the way. and in some cases it might have been just get them away from the water's edge. in other places it was let's move them to cities. they tried to do that, moving a lot of american tourists to guadalaja guadalajara. moving them out of the storm but needing structures to care for a lot of people. the rest were asked to shelter where they could. there were indications that the government was placing heavy earth-moving equipment ahead of the storm, realizing there would be landslides and mudslides and debris. they wanted to make sure the roads were kept open. they say there were 15,000 evacuated. many were sent off to places like guadalajara or other major cities or bussed to other locations to get out of the storm's path. those who were not were placed in shelters in the hotels. they're not staying in their hotel rooms. the accommodations were not so nice but at least they were in solid structures and that was the best way to handle things. the lights have remained on. no significant reports of damage in puerto vallarta. that's good news. on the flip side, the storm has gone somewhere and it's done extensive damage and there's been some damage that can be told at least in the darkness. roughly 500 miles or 215 kilometer. there seems to be significant structures knocked over. i'm talking bricks and cement. so the concern is in puerto vallarta, the rain. elsewhere, daylight will reveal the damage. back to you. >> reporter: thanks to martin for that. earlier i spoke with carl emberson, he's the manager of the hotel st. regents. he made accommodations for every one of his guests before landfall. >> we took the immediate steps to secure the safety of our guests and we got that message on thursday night, and by friday morning at 8:30 we had them all evacuated to guadalajara which is about a 45-hour drive from here, from punta mita. thankfully this part of the region, not much damage. we're looking aet hopefully opening in the next 24 to 48 hour, the property. but that's about an update here. i'm here from punta meta. >> reporter: so the gets made a trip to safety. i'm imagining you expected the worst and when that didn't happen, clearly it must have been a huge amount of relief. >> you're correct. it was the hearing of the foreca forecast, and what was potentially up front was indeed a little scary, and following stalwart's policies and securing comfort, that was great. having the emergency team, that's what we're trained for, and that's what, you know, the team was trained for to do and are passionate about. it's making our guests happy, that's what we do, and also to take care of the property with a team here just in case anything else could go wrong here. >> i wonder if you could comment on the preparation you've seen so far by the mexican government because clearly there wasn't a lot of warning when this storm came in. it intensified very quickly from a tropical storm to a hurricane in about 25 hours. how do you think the local authorities dealt with this? what was their assessment? >> i think, you know, the communication, how they got it down, how they gave us enough warning to react and also the manner in which they communicated, saying, it is time to move. and those that did, i think, are happier hoteliers, you know, than those who may be dealing with it, who still have to get in hotel rooms. i think that's -- you know, having that communication with enough time for you to react and the right message, i think that's crucial in these types of situations. >> carl emberson in mita. i talked with him just a short time ago. there was one man who went right through it, the captain chase allen with the u.s. air force. he felt the intensity firsthand. he flew through the eye of the hurricane to measure the storm's wind speeds. >> there's a lot of rain associated with the storm obviously. the eye was very well defined and very well wrapped around, i guess you'd say. and so penetrating the wall was, like i said, severe turbulence and a lot of rain, and it was a small eyewall, so we had to work really quickly to drop the weather instruments. usually in a storm you have an eye that might be 30 nautical miles, so you have more time to work on dropping your weather instruments. in this case, everything happened so quickly with the small eye like that. there's a lot going on, and we were just having to work as a crew together and deal with the task at hand and just back each other up all the way. so it was a pretty intense ride, but overall worked out and we got some good data out of that. i was expecting this going in to patricia, but this was definitely the most severe storm i've flown to date. normally when you break out in the eye, you have what we call a stadium effect, so you see the whole eye wall from inside the eye, which is a very good picture, and you can look straight up sometimes, see clear skies. you didn't have any of that. we could just see lightning flashes and that was pretty much it. >> reporter: from a category 5 storm, the most powerful hurricane f recorded now, to a category 1, patricia is losing steam and losing it quickly. karen maginnis, again, following ought of this as she has been through the night. karen, where is the storm now, how strong is it, and what's the path? >> it is barely hanging in there at hurricane intensity. you cannot see any clear circulation that's taking place with this. as ramdly as it intensified, it is really becoming a much weaker syst system just hour by hour. national hurricane center says there are still 75-mile-an-hour gusts moving, racing across the interior sections of mexico, but we did receive some reports that there were as much as 10 inches of rainfall reported in some areas. water temperatures were very warm here. in the mid to upper 80s. and there's an especially deep pool of some very warm water. so right around in this vicinity, that's where it quickly intensified and we saw it make landfall about 6:30 local time in the evening right between manza nia and puerto vallarta. so to some degree there was a little bit of protection thanks to the coastal ranges. now f they jut up to about 4,000 or 5,000 feet, it acted as a little bit of a buffer. right now, category 1. but it wasn't this blue environment. if this doesn't make a lot of sense, especially where we see the red and the purple, that's where you've got a lot of the energy. there was nothing taking place here that was going to sheer this hurricane apart. nothing like the mountains or ned like that. so it was in a very, very favorable environment. very conducive for it to just explode. a sneak hurricane a lot like we saw back in 1959. the last time they had a category 5 hurricane make land fall. now what happens to this moisture? it's moving up into texas. already 20 inches of rainfall. not from this, but this is going to enhance the rainfall in texas over the weekend. so we'll closely monitor that. we're bell back at the bottom of the hour to give you another update. back to you. >> reporter: karen, thank you for the update. residents and tourists share their experiences. these are snapshots of what was happening when patricia was probably at her strongest. of course, not only where they sharing their experiences, laurie, at some point they were asking for help. >> reporter: absolutely. they're also at the same time expressing gratitude online as the storm has been downgraded, as things aren't turning out as bad for some of them. i want to read you one tweet from a woman a resident in guadalajara. her name is aaliyah martinez and she's expressing relief that her dog came home, that her labrador has come home. she's thanking whoever gave her shelter, her neighbors. our two guests are asleep. she's using the #patricia and she's using #i'mdetermined. you can see people going online for an outpouring of support. another one was expressing her gratitude that her family was safe. it's a facebook feature. her family was able to check in on facebook safety alert which they built -- it was an engineering tool they used to make sure some of the engineers were okay during a disaster years ago and they decided to build this for folks all around the world where they're able to check in on facebook and say, hey, i'm safe and all the family around the world will get an alert. one woman tweeted props to facebook for this. glad to know my family in guadalajara is safe after she saw that alert on facebook. they're hearing their family is safe and they're going to social media to express that, john. >> reporter: also on social media we receive a lot of information coming out from aid agencies who have basically been putting out information as well. >> reporter: yeah. you know, this is how they're connecting directly to people. you look at what's going on. you look at someone like the red cross. the red cross has been actively tweeting. one thing they tweeted recrennelly after the downgrade, they reminded people that despite the downgrade, the storm is still dangerous. that was a tweet they put out there. you know, a lot of people are relieved that it's not as bad as they thought it would be, but they're also saying, you know, look, you need to still take precaution, take shelter, and we're hearing that from the aid groups, john. >> reporter: okay, laurie. thank you for that. well done on finding the happy dog story out of the hurricane here. and cnn's impact your world team has compiled a list of resources who have been affected by this storm. for more information, please head to cnn.com/impact and you can find out how you can help. of course, a lot more coverage from mexico, tu impact of hurricane patricia in the coming hours. in the meantime back to london and fred pleitgen. >> thank you very much, john vause, from mexico. of course, we'll be going back to you throughout the hour. we have other news to konk as well. secretary of state john kerry is in jordan to meet with king abdullah as they find a way to ease the violence in israel. that's coming up. when a wildfire raged through elkhorn ranch, the sudden loss of pasture became a serious problem for a family business. faced with horses that needed feeding and a texas drought that sent hay prices soaring, the owners had to act fast. thankfully, mary miller banks with chase for business. and with greater financial clarity and a relationship built for the unexpected, she could control her cash flow, and keep the ranch running. chase for business. so you can own it. chase for business. ♪ ♪ the beautiful sound of customers making the most of their united flight. power, wi-fi, and streaming entertainment. that's... seize the journey friendly. ♪ ♪ it's the final countdown! ♪ ♪ the final countdown! if you're the band europe, you love a final countdown. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. bleeding gums? you may think it's a result of brushing too hard. it's not. it's a sign of early gum disease... listerine(r) can help reverse... early gum disease in just two weeks. listerine(r). power to your mouth™! when you're not confident your company's data is secure, the possibility of a breach can quickly become the only thing you think about. that's where at&t can help. at at&t we monitor our network traffic so we can see things others can't. mitigating risks across your business. leaving you free to focus on what matters most. welcome back to all of our viewers in the world and around the united states. the storm is now a category 1 hurricane, but it hit mexico's pacific coast on friday without much warning as a category 5, which is, of course, the fiercest on the scale. thousands of people have been forced on their homes while others are waiting it out. mexico's president says so far damage has been much less than feared, but, of course, it is still dark in mexico. rain and mudslides are a main concern. forecasters expect patricia to become a tropical storm and then dissipate later today. in other news now, one person is dead and dozens more wounded after a bomb attack outside the main shia site in banglade bangladesh's capital city this is as they marked the holliday. they're investigating the bonling but they're unsure who might have carried it out. to the mid east, secretary john kerry is in jordan this hour to discuss the recent wave of violence in israel and the west bank. he's meeting with king abdullah and palestinian's president mahmoud abbas. he expressed cautious optimism about finding a way to defuse the violence that has killed nearly 60 people this month. and we have our own senior international correspondent ben wedeman who jones me now live from jerusalem. ben, you've been on the ground there in the west bang, in israel is. there any sign that the violence might be dying down? >> reporter: not really when you go around. and we've just heard news there's been another attempted stabbing by a palestinian teenager at a check point just outside a city in the northern west bank. according to a spokesman, the assail land has been shot. now palestinian eyewitnesses say, in fact, this teenager did not have a knife and the soldiers opened fire on him for no apparent reason. so we're still waiting for more details to clarify that situation. but, no. when you go around the west bank, there is no sense that things are fizzling out. yesterday we were going around the bethlehem area. there were clashes at the northern end of the city, clashes at the southern end of the city, and you could see on the horizon black smoke rising where protesters were lighting tires. so there doesn't seem to be a diminishing of the violence at all. now we're hearing that secretary of state johniery has met with palestinian president mahmoud abbas. when asked if he hopes the meetings will improve the situation, he said we're always hopeful. we understand the secretary of state is trying to work out between jordan, which has custodi custodiwas toa toadianship for the temple mount and israel. so there will be clear understandings about the arrangements there. at the moment what exists is the so-called status quo, which is unwritten. it's informal. and i think what we're -- what we understand is secretary kerry wants to formalize this so everybody unders, the jordanians, the israelis, the palestinians, exactly what the red lines on that very sensitive piece of real estate are. fred? >> how much faith, ben, do people actually have in diplomacy there? we've been talking so much in the past couple of days that many of these palestinian protesters don't really feel represented by mahmoud abbas either. >> reporter: no. and you have to realize that if let's say you're 20 years old, neither you nor i are -- but you have lived your entire life in a situation where there are talks for peace, there are negotiations, shuttled diplomacy, there are agreements signed, but, in fact, nothing really changes on the ground. i'm going to spots at the moment covering clashes where i was covering them 20 years ago. and so for people who have lived this entire life -- their entire lives watching this go on, there's not much faith. and that also applies on the israeli side. if you're a 20-year-old israeli, you have seen wars with lebanon, wars with gaza. you've seen uprisings and flare-ups like we're seeing now. so when they think of the other, all they think of is violence on both sides. and despite what all the diplomats are saying, the violence continues year after year after year. fred? >> ben wedeman, our international correspondent. of course, neither of us are 20 years old, but we're still very young at heart. on friday secretary of state kerry also met for two hours with the foreign minister to discuss the civil war in syria. according to the reuter's news agencies talks could begin as soon as next week and that all parties are interested inry solving the conflict will meaet but he didn't specify whether that would include countries like iran. lavrov wants them to be at the table. russia's foreign minister reiterate thad the syrian people and not the international community must decide the fate of assad. aid workers say russian jets are to blame, which moscow strongly denies. now, we're learning more about the first u.s. ground operation against isis forces in iraq. a daring hostage rescue mission left one u.s. kmaernld dead but it also saved the lives of dozens of people believed to be facing imminent execution by isis terrorists. our international chief correspondent jim sciutto has all the details. >> reporter: faced with the first u.s. combat death in iraq in four years, pentagon secretary ash carter made it clear that u.s. troops will continue to face danger there. >> the u.s. administration has taken great pains, permation, to say it's not a ground combat. >> they will be in harm's way, there's no question about it. i don't want anybody to be under any illusions about that. >> reporter: master sergeant joshua l. wheeler, 39 of roland, oklahoma, a 20-year veteran american was a member of the elite delta force. the deadly battle was the first time u.s. forces have directly engaged isis fighters on the ground in iraq. in a joint operation with kurdish commandos, u.s. operators from the delta force raided an isis compound to rescue hostages thought to be in imminent danger of execution. u.s. war bombs. they brought in nearly 30 u.s. special forces and 40 kurdish troops. the u.s. forces were not minute to enter the walled compound or directly engage the isis fighters, but when kurdish forces inside the compound were overwhelmed, the u.s. commander made the decision to enter the fire fight. master sergeant wheeler was shot inside the compound and died later after being transported to a military hospital in erbil. when the mission was over, a u.s. aircraft overhead destroyed the compound. u.s. are deployed to iraq to train, advise, and assist. they're allowed to return fire when they or their partner forces come under attack. >> when a fire fight ensued, this american ran to the sound of the guns and all the indications are it was his actions and that of one of his teammates that protects those who were involved in breaching the compound. >> reporter: this risky mission was launched by u.s. military officials after they spotted freshly dug mass graves inside the compound. u.s. officials say 70 prisoners were rescued, 20 iraqi security forces as well as iraqi civilians and interestingly isis fighters accused by their own group of spying. missing, however, were the kurdish captives they were originally sent in to rescue. defense secretary carter said he was proud of master sergeant carter. he said in his wounds he ran to the sounds of the guns. he made the decision to go into the fire fight. he lost his life for it. secretary carter said there will continue to be rif yk missions like this in iraq. they said they will continue to be in harm's way. jim sciutto, cnn, washington. officials in southern france say their priority right now is to identify the victims of a fiery road crash that killed 40 people on friday. it happened as a truck and bus ran into each other an a narrow road in bordeaux. they call it the worst road accident in at least three decades and it's described as a war zone. there is much more ahead here on cnn. our own john vause will update us on our top story, hurricane patricia, live from quad a la harrah in mexico, and we'll also hear how the red cross is preparing to help. irectv are no. so get ready to laugh here and cry here. scream over here and freak out over there! and maybe go back to laughing here. and crying there. try not to laugh here though, it's rude. and maybe don't cry here, people will get the wrong idea. introducing the all in one plan. only from directv and at&t. >>mine hurt more.. >>mine stopped hurting faster! neosporin plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria neosporin plus pain relief kills the germs. fights the pain. use with band-aid brand. the way i see it, you have two choices; the easy way or the hard way. you could choose a card that limits where you earn bonus cash back. or, you could make things easier on yourself. that's right, the quicksilver card from capital one. with quicksilver you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. so, let's try this again. what's in your wallet? ♪ ♪ (singing) you wouldn't haul a load without checking your clearance. so why would you invest without checking brokercheck? check your broker with brokercheck. cnn. i'm john vause with news on hurricane patricia. when it made landfall it blew in as the most powerful hurricane ever recorded. while it's losing strength, it's still considered dangerous. right now landslides and mudslides are still of concern. mexico's red cross has been collecting donations since thursday, officials still waiting to see the full impact before assessing where those resources should be direct and cnn spoke to the international federation of the red cross a short time ago. >> the red cross is clearly of assistance to the government. so they have been mobilizing assistance since yesterday. they have mobilized relief items including food items and blankets and it's close to the coastal area, and they have mobilized response teams as well. they're waiting for the impact of the hurricane in order to start making assessments and identify immediate needs. there are around 50,000 people have been evacuated around the coastal area. evacuation centers have been set up and are equipped to shelter approximately 258,000 people. also the mexican red cross has established a donation center in in mexico city to capture all donated items for the affected people. >> reporter: many residents here as well as tourists took those warnings seriously to evacuate. they took to shelters ahead of the storm and throughout the day cnn has been talking to a lot of people in mexico who were in the path of the storm. they talked about not just their fear of hurricane patricia but how many people supported one another. >> many people as i drove through town were taking precautions, taping up glass windows, moving everything inside. it's just very eerie. nobody around. not even taxi drivers. >> they were concerned about putting us in another room. they were concerned about the roof being ripped off. you see we have kind of a motley crue with me. people from tennessee, new jersey, west virginia, california, all over the u.s. >> i closed business down early so employees could go home and secured my apartment the best i could. i'm fairly close to the ocean. we've moved the pool furniture and did the best we can. it looks like, you know, hopefully things will be fine. >> the hotel guests throughout the day have been simply positive about it and i want to commend the hotel employees. they volunteered their time. they're not with their families. they're here safe with us making sure we stay safe. we're basically in the bathrooms most of the time. they wanted to make sure doors were closed. they gave us a lot of food, drinks. as i said they pretty much spent their entire days here instead of their families. we collected a little bit for the workers for graciously donating their time to make sure we were safe here. >> this hurricane intensified so very quickly from a storm to a category 5 in about 24 hours and now it seems to be weakening just as fast. karen maginnis joins us once again at the weather center to explain how all of that happened. karen. >> it was stunning. when we were looking a that 24 hours ago, this was an incredible hurricane. national hurricane center was using words like "unprecedent," and it certainly has been. this is one to analyze. you might quibble with stay 'tis ticks but you can't deny this was one of the most powerful storm systems if not the most certainly for the western hemisphere. it slammed on shore between manza nia and puerto vallarta right around 6:30. why did it's erupt so suddenly? called the sneaker hurricane. just like in 1959, the lat category 5 that slammed into this coast. water temperatures exceptionally warm. that's why people love it. it's beautiful. gorgeous sunset, beautiful buildings, nice resorts. well, it gained intensity right about in this vicinity. there is just really nothing that was impeding it. a very favorable environmental, very warm water temperature and not in the way of shear. when we talk about shear, something ha could rip apart the system, either upper levels or lower levels. this is a vicinity where you see the blue. you may not pick up on what is happening elsewhere, but those would be unfavorable environmentals buchl this is a very favorable environmental. now it's being ripped apart. if you couldn't see it, now cow can't see it on the satellite imagery or radar imagery. already it's producing rain in some sections. we're not getting reports but once the sun is up, we'll see the damage, we'll see what happened when this category 5, 201-mile-an-hour winds did when it slammed on shore. now we'll watch some of those remnants as they move into texas. already parts of texas are seeing exponentially heavy rainfall. john? >> reporter: yeah. i think you're right, karen, when you say the word here is it could have been a whole lot worse. we still don't know just how bad patricia was because it is so dark. as the sun comes up and we see the outlying areas, we'll get a better idea of what damage has been left behind in the wake of patricia in the next few hoyers. thank you so much for keeping us informs of what was going on. of course, if you'd like to help anyone who has been impacted. we have groups who are vetted to help the people here. that's at our website cnn.com/impact if you'd like to help. in the meantime let's go back to fred in our studios in london. fred. >> thank you very much, john. we have the latest headlines. one of this from hollywood's top social circles to fighting terrorists in syria and its strange son. that's next. sure, tv has evolved over the years. it's gotten squarer. brighter. bigger. it's gotten thinner. even curvier. but what's next? for all binge watchers. movie geeks. sports freaks. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. welcome back, everyone, to our special ongoing coverage of hurricane patricia, which has now been downgraded to a category 1 storm but not before it slammed into southwestern mexico friday night as a category 5 hurricane, which is, of course, the fiercest level. even as it loses steam, forecasters warn this is still a very strong, and, of course, also a very dangerous storm. flooding and mudslides remain big threats as the rain continues across the country. all right. i want to get you caught up on some other world news now. south africa's president says it will not hike university fees last year as students have been asking for. president jacob zuma made this announcement in person. some demonstrators threw rocks at police who responded with water cannons and stun grenades. students have been protesting the high cost of education with some calling for free tuition. the rapid recruitment of young adults by isis in al qaeda has many western leaders very concerned and now the son of a hollywood director has appeared in a new video from an al qaeda affiliate. our own brian todd has more. >> reporter: it's a slickly produced video featuring a militant who knows something about making a good film. >> these are the houses of your fathers, brothers, sisters. >> reporter: heavily armed with a british accent he said he's with al qaeda and in the video he slams the competing terror group isis for decimating a northern village in cilia. >> the fellows of the islamic state decided in the middle of ramadan that the best worship they could perform is to bomb the houses of innocent muslims. >> reporter: according to the site the militant goes by. people leadership his ream name is lucas kinney and his family moved to hollywood. they say lucas kinney is the son of patrick kinney who worked on blockbusters like "brave heart." he also worked on a sequel to "ram "rambo" and with steven spielberg and on "the last crusade." now it appears lucas kinney is on his own terror crusade. >> this is a guy who had every advantage and still ended up with al qaeda, in syria. someone who has appeared to sear yoo because he believes it was his religious due toy to fight jihad. >> reporter: his family divorced years ago. he attended the best schools. one relative said lucas was a rock and roller who once played in band called hannah's got herpies. ooet it appearances lucas kinney is using those performance skills and experts warn he could exploit his familiarity. >> some of these recruits are beinging suicide bombers ready to give up their lives. they could be sent back to the west, that they could be trained inside syria by al qaeda. right now the group's focus is on syria. the word is that could change. >> very troubling reporterfrom our own brian todd. cnn reached out to u.s. and british officials. they wouldn't comment. the family doesn't know when or why he became radicalized. they said, quote, this is not our proudest moment and their hearts are broken. democratic candidate hillary clinton was all smiles returning to the campaign trail a day after 11 grueling hours on capitol hill. the house committee grilled her on the deadly attack of the amcome pound in benghazi, libya in 2012. republicans weren't satisfied with her answers as you may imagine, but many analysts say she emerged largely unscatheed by the hearings. clinton addressed the hearing friday while addressing a woman's leadership forum. >> it's been quite a week, hasn't it? well, thank you all so much. i am absolutely delighted to be here. as some of you may know, i had a pretty long day yesterday. >> and here might be one of the reasons she's smiling. a poll released by quinnipiac university, hillary clinton has recaptured the lead among likely democratic caucus-goers in the key voting state of iowa. the survey of almost 600 people showed 51% backed clinton while 40% support her biggest rival, vermont senator bernie sanders. and the world series of baseball is set. it will be the kansas city royals versus the new york mets. the royal beat the toronto blue jays friday night in a final of a best of seven series. the mets beat the chicago cubs earlier in the week. the royals lost last year's world series to the san francisco giants. game one of the 2015 series is tuesday night. and, of course, many people will be looking forward to that. hurricane patricia is down but it certainly isn't down. we're live in guadalajara with the latest details on the randly weakening storm. that's coming up next. you wouldn't hire an organist without hearing them first. charge! so why would you invest without checking brokercheck? check your broker with brokercheck. ...feel like a raging storm. i've tried laxatives... ... but my symptoms keep returning. my constipation... ...feels like a heavy weight... ...that keeps coming back. linzess can help. once-daily linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. linzess helps you proactively manage your symptoms. it may help you have more frequent and complete bowel movements that are... ... easier to pass and may relieve your belly pain. do not give linzess to children under 6, and it should not be given to children 6 to 17. it may harm them. don't take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you... ... develop unusual or... severe stomach pain... ...especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect... ... is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it's severe, stop taking linzess and ... ...call your doctor right away. other side effects include, gas, stomach-area pain... ...and swelling. bottom line, ask your doctor about linzess today. well, right now you can get 15 gigs for the price of 10. that's 5 extra gigs for the same price. so five more gigs for the same price? yea, allow me to demonstrate. you like that pretzel? yea. 50% more data for the same price. i like this metaphor. oh, it's even better with funnel cakes. but very sticky. get 15 gigs for the price of 10. and now get $300 credit for every line you switch. now at at&t want to survive a crazy busy day? sfx: cell phone chimes start with a positive attitude... and positively radiant skin. aveeno® positively radiant moisturizer... with active naturals® soy. aveeno® naturally beautiful results®. welcome back, everyone, to our special coverage of hurricane patricia, which has now been downgraded to a category 1 hurricane as the storm loses steam over mexico's mountainous regions. it hit the country's pacific coast on friday without much warning as a category 5 storm, which, of course, is the fierce effort category. thousands of people have been forced from their homes. others decided to wait it out. mexico's president says so far damage has been much less than feared. mudslides are a main concern as heavy rain continues to fall. let's bring in our own john vause once more for the latest from the ground in guadalajara in mexico. and, john, one of the things that you've been pointing out as the morning progresses is that the sun isn't out yet, and it's only then that damage will be assessed. >> reporter: yeah, exactly, fred. and when we look at the storm, it came in a little further south than where it was expected to make landfall. a little further south of puerto vallarta and just a bit north of another major city, manza nia. and in some ways that could almost be like a goldilocks path if you'd like. if it was going to make landfall as the most powerful hurricane ever reported, that's probably the place. it's not heavily populated. 100,000 people. a similar situation in manza nia as well. that was the best-case scenario. right now we'll have to wait and see what the indication will be in those isolated areas. there's been a lot of rain dumped in the country, maybe a foot or more, maybe more in isolated areas. again, you have the threats of mudslides and landslides as well. and roads being blocked will make it harder to get into the area. you hear the cry it could have been so much worse coming out of mexico. fred? >> thank you very much. john vause in puerto vallarta, mexico. the state of texas is experiencing significant rainfall and also significant flooding this morning wc. we'll have the latest. thank you for joining us on "cnn newsroom" this hour. i'm fred pleitgen. see you soon. just about anywhere you can use splenda®... ...no calorie sweetener. splenda® lets you experience... ...the joy of sugar... ...without all the calories. think sugar, say splenda® ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. ♪ ♪ the beautiful sound of customers making the most of their united flight. power, wi-fi, and streaming entertainment. that's... seize the journey friendly. ♪ (we are so excited to hear youre mergbig ideasableworld, on how we're going to take on directv. so over to you. (newhart) thank you. full disclosure. we forgot to come up with ideas. (cw exec) yeah, we got messed up last night. you're lucky we're even here. (newhart) but, we did bring breakfast. (jmh) bagels? (newhart) nope. (woman) oh my goodness. (newhart) peel and eat shrimp. (cole) not how i would have gone but it's good, it's innovative. and that's what we want here. (vo) get rid of cable and switch to directv. call 1-800-directv. . >> the most powerful hurricane ever recorded is losing its punch. do not be deceived here. it is a large and dangerous storm that poses serious risk. >> think about it. 12 hours after it landed, it's still a hurricane. this is what patricia looks like in space as it made landfall against mexico's coat t. most severe rating. winds in excess of 155 miles per hour extended far out from that eye. >> this is another storm in texas causing torrential rain, setting off a flash flood emergency there. numerous stranded drivers had to be rescued from flooded sections of interstate 45. it's south of dallas. we have our reporters live ahead for us. we have sarah side fer there in god la rar ra in mexico, of course. we want to start, though, with ed lavendaro. in nova