Powerful Hurricane Grace advanced inland on Saturday morning over the Mexican state of Veracruz, where authorities remained on alert for the threat of floods and landslides.
Grace made landfall early Saturday in the town of Tecolutla, in Veracruz (east), like a Category 3 hurricane, but dropped slightly in intensity as it advanced over Mexican territory.
At 9am GMT, Grace’s eye was 70km southwest of Tuxpan and its sustained maximum winds were blowing at 175km / h, moving 22km / h west, the Center reported. United States National Hurricane (NHC).
“There are likely to be hurricane conditions and a dangerous storm surge in parts of the east coast of mainland Mexico over the next few hours,” the Miami-based NHC wrote.
The coast of mainland Mexico, from Port Veracruz to Cap Roig, was under hurricane warning.
However, “a rapid weakening is expected as Grace moves inland over the mountains today, and the hurricane is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm by this afternoon and dissipate on Sunday.” added the NHC.
Authorities in Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo (center), San Luis Potosí (north) and Tamaulipas (northeast) were on alert for potential floods, destruction of homes and river overflows that could give way to the phenomenon.
In Twitter messages shortly before midnight, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador urged residents living in high-risk areas to move to safe areas.
“I join the call that is being made to ask people (…) to seek refuge in high parts with relatives and in hostels that are being set up.”
The Veracruz authorities had 200 shelters ready and were ready to activate 2,000 more if needed.
Against weather forecasts, which estimated that at most it would be category 2, Grace quickly intensified as it passed through the Gulf of Mexico and in a few hours strengthened from 1 to 3 on a scale of 5 which made it a potentially destructive phenomenon.
This is the second time Grace has touched down in Mexican territory after arriving in Category 1 on Thursday at the Tulum spa on the Caribbean coast, where she left minor property damage.
-First effects-
The areas impacted by Grace were plunged into darkness because prior to their arrival the state Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) made preventive cuts.
López Obrador assured 7,829 state civil protection agents, military and CFE workers were ready to support the areas that would be affected.
In the port of Veracruz, one of the largest in the country, shops located in the coastal area closed their doors in the afternoon and protected them with planks and ribbons while on the beaches fishermen secured about 300 boats.
“We will spend many days without fishing, almost a week, we are affected like 35,000 fishermen because you can not go out,” Isabel Pastrana Vázquez, president of the Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives of Veracruz, told AFP.
The villagers also secured their homes after providing themselves with canned food and water.
Authorities closed most of the roads leading north of Veracruz since Friday afternoon.