Northeastern Mexico braced for heavy rains along the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday as Tropical Storm Gert approached land, threatening to douse areas already soaked by Hurricane Emily last week.
Gert packed sustained winds of 65kph and was expected to move inland late on Sunday about 500km south of the United States border near Tampico, according to the US Hurricane Centre in Miami.
Mexican officials posted a tropical storm warning along the coast from Palma Sola in Veracruz state north to La Pesca in southern Tamaulipas.
The storm could drop from 15cm to 20cm of rain in its path, said Federico Acevedo, a weather analyst at the Gulf Prevention Centre in Veracruz.
The precipitation could provoke flash flooding and landslides in areas already saturated by Hurricane Emily, the hurricane centre announced.
Late on Sunday afternoon, Gert was centered about 105km southeast of Tampico, Mexico, moving west-northwest at 17kph.
Tropical storm force winds extended outwards up to 140km from the centre.
Emily hit both the Yucatan and northern Mexico earlier this month with winds of more than 200 kph, driving tourists from luxury hotels in the Cancun and dropping torrents of rain over Mexico’s interior.
A woman was swept away and drowned last week in northeast Mexico while trying to cross a canyon flooded with rains from the hurricane. – Sapa-AP