/ 28 September 2007

Hurricane makes landfall on Mexican coast

Hurricane Lorenzo weakened into a tropical storm early on Friday after crashing into Mexico’s Gulf Coast, where it knocked out electricity, flooded roads and uprooted trees.

Hundreds of people from low-lying communities were forced to seek higher ground along a stretch of coastline populated with small fishing villages and beach hotels popular with local tourists. The ports of Tecolutla, Tuxpan, Nautla, Veracruz and Tamaulipas were closed hours before the storm hit.

Lorenzo rapidly strengthened into a category-one hurricane on Thursday, then made landfall before dawn on Friday south-east of Tuxpan, the United States National Hurricane Centre in Miami said. It was expected to continue to weaken as it moved over land on Friday.

The storm knocked down billboards, toppled electrical posts and drenched a region already flooded once before this season by Hurricane Dean.

Jose Reyes, a desk clerk at Hotel Riviera in Tuxpan, said the city appeared to have escaped most of the storm’s wrath. ”There’s just rain, nothing but rain,” he said.

Classes were cancelled on Friday, and hundreds were staying in dozens of shelters. At least 30 communities near several rivers were ordered to evacuate.

Residents scrambled late on Thursday to move furniture and belongings to higher ground even as roads began to flood.

”We never expected the hurricane would hit here,” said Ribay Peralta, a 33-year-old lawyer who was packing his car with televisions sets, DVD players and other appliances in the town of San Rafael, a low-lying community about 15km from Veracruz’s coast. ”San Rafael is a town that gets flooded easily.”

Forecasters said Lorenzo could dump 13cm to 25cm of rain in Veracruz, with isolated downpours reaching 38cm.

The area of steep mountains and snaking rivers is vulnerable to heavy rain. In 1999, flooding killed at least 350 people.

Before dawn on Friday, Lorenzo was centred about 65km south-west of Tuxpan and was moving westward at 11km/h, the centre said. It had top sustained winds near 65km/h. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Karen weakened in the open Atlantic Ocean, and wasn’t threatening land.

Karen’s centre was about 1 215km east of the Windward Islands at 9am GMT and moving west-northwest near 16km/h. Its maximum sustained winds had decreased to 72km/h. — Sapa-AP