Puerto Vallarta, Mexico — Just a day after menacing Mexico as one of history’s strongest storms, Hurricane Patricia left surprisingly little damage in its wake Saturday and quickly dissipated into a low-pressure system that posed little threat beyond heavy rain.

Patricia plunged ashore on Friday night about 65 miles (110 kilometers) southeast of Puerto Vallarta, on a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico’s Pacific Coast before the system crashed into mountains that sapped its potentially catastrophic force.

Residents of the coast where Patricia came ashore Friday night describe an enraged sea crashing into hotels, scooping beach away from their foundations, and howling winds that toppled trees and telephone posts.

Domingo Hernandez is a watchman at the Hotel Barra de Navidad in the resort village of the same name. He says "waves were coming into the hotel," and adds that "All the streets here in town are full of downed trees all over the place." He describes Patricia as the strongest storm he's seen in a quarter century of living on the coast.

The popular beach city of Puerto Vallarta and the port of Manzanillo were spared the brunt of the violent weather.

Puerto Vallarta, home to some 200,000 people, including thousands of U.S. residents and visitors, was largely unscathed. After the storm passed, people snapped selfies next to a seaside sculpture, and business owners swept sidewalks as they would on any morning. Puddles dotted the downtown district, but no more than a passing thunderstorm might leave.

In Manzanillo, high winds and waves blew out windows and damaged some buildings. Trees and utility poles were toppled. An enraged sea battered the Hotel Barra de Navidad in a nearby town, scooping sand away from the foundations.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries, said Roberto Lopez Lara, interior secretary for the state of Jalisco. Later, President Enrique Peña Nieto reported that between 3,000 and 3,500 homes had been damaged and the storm also affected 3,500 hectares (about 8,650 acres) of farmland. He said 235,000 people had lost electricity when the storm hit, and about half had power restored by Saturday.

It was a remarkable outcome, considering that Patricia had once been a Category 5 hurricane with winds up to 200 mph (325 kph) before coming ashore with slightly less power in an area dotted with sleepy villages and a few upscale hotels.

Hurricane experts praised Mexico's expertise at storm preparations.

On Saturday morning, Puerto Vallarta was fully operational with 100% of its hotel and restaurant facilities open, as well as its International Airport (PVR), marina, cruise port and Convention Center. All domestic and international airlines as well as buses, taxis and other ground transport companies resumed their normal service schedule.

No changes to the cruise schedule have been made. Disney's Wonder cruise ship, carrying 2,400 passengers, will arrive in Puerto Vallarta as scheduled on Monday October 26, 2015; and Norwegian's Jewel and the Ruby Princess will make their scheduled call on Wednesday October 28, 2015 as planned.

We all breathed a collective sigh of relief when Hurricane Patricia skirted our beautiful resort destination. But the world's strongest hurricane devastated rural areas to the south and east of our city in the state of Jalisco with wind damage and flooding. These are our friends, our families, our employees and their families. They need help.

Collection booths for the people in the Manzanilla and Macaques areas where the hurricane touched down have been set up around Puerto Vallarta, including Comercial Mexicana in Plaza Marina, ACT II Stages on Basilio Badillo, and Casa Cupula in Colonia Amapas.

Please consider lending a helping hand by donating non-perishable food items and bottled water, clothes and shoes, cleaning and medical supplies, sheets and blankets, diapers and toilet paper, toiletries, pet food., etc.

If you are not in the area and want to help, click HERE to make a donation. Casa Cupula's Don Pickens and Act II's Danny Minnini will go out and buy what they need. They are also organizing some trucks to deliver food and supplies to the affected area, and Poncho Davalos is organizing with the Red Cross.