Very Scary Video From Inside Hurricane Patricia

Enhanced satellite view of Hurricane Patricia off
the coast of Mexico last month.  

I saw a fair amount of Internet commentary saying the media and meteorologists "over-hyped" Hurricane Patricia last month in Mexico.

When it was just offshore of Mexico, it became the strongest hurricane observed in the Western Hemisphere, with sustained winds of at least 200 mph.

It weakened a bit when it moved inland but was still a Category 5, the strongest category there is.

But damage and casualties were surprisingly light.  Marshall Shepherd explains here in Forbes why it was not over-hyped.

In any event, as I and every person watching this hurricane noted, the strongest winds with Patricia hit a relatively lightly populated area.

Also, though the hurricane was incredibly powerful, it was small in size, so the areas pummeled by 165 mph winds weren't that huge.

Now we have video proof of just how powerful Patricia was.

Storm chaser Josh Morgerman of iCyclone positioned himself in a hotel in the coastal community of Emiliano Zapata, where the hurricane made landfall.

His video is below and it is fascinating. The hurricane intensifies throughout, but the scariest parts are just after the eye of Patricia passes and the wind picks up to incredible levels, the hotel begins to blow apart.

Morgerman and other people at the hotel seek shelter in a bathroom, trying to seal themselves off from the wind and flying debris with mattresses.

Scary stuff: