Hurricane Grace delivers Mexico, triggering floods and power outages

TECOLUTLA, Mexico, August 21 (Reuters) – Hurricane Grace hit Mexico on Saturday with torrential rains and howling winds, causing severe flooding and tearing down power lines and trees after becoming one of the most powerful storms in recent years. years on touching the Gulf Coast of the country.

Grace was catching sustained maximum winds of 201 miles per hour (201 kilometers per hour), a five-step Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, when it crashed ashore near Tecolutla station in the state of Veracruz in the early morning.

It weakened rapidly as it moved through the mountainous interior of Mexico and became a tropical storm in the middle of the morning.

Veracruz civil protection authorities said Grace caused power outages and felled trees. Video images and photos posted on social media showed damage to the buildings, but no casualties were reported immediately.

Local television showed heavy flooding in the state capital of Veracruz, Xalapa, with coffins of a local business floating down a water-saturated street. Local authorities also said the nearby Actopan River burst into the riverbank and closed a local road.

State Governor Cuitlahuac Garcia said several rivers in Veracruz would flood in the next few hours and urged the local population to cover themselves. “Let’s repeat: retreat to the upper area and municipal hostels,” Garcia said in a statement.

Television footage also showed flooding in Ciudad Madero, in the southern part of Tamaulipas state, near the Veracruz border. The Francisco Madero refinery of the Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is located in Ciudad Madero.

Mexico City International Airport said some flights were canceled due to the hurricane. The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), the national electricity company, reported that 565,000 electricity users were affected by outages.

By 10 a.m. CDT (1500 GMT), Grace had weakened to a tropical storm, with maximum winds of 70 mph (110 km / h). The center was about 40 miles north-northeast of Mexico City, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Before Grace reached land, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador urged people from the states of Veracruz, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas and Hidalgo to reach higher lands or shelters.

Many seem to have answered the call.

Until Sunday, the NHC Grace forecast would throw 15 to 30 inches of 6 to 12-inch rain on bands in eastern and central Mexico and up to 45 inches in some areas. Heavy rainfall is likely to cause areas of flash and urban flooding, he said.

Veracruz and its waters are home to several oil facilities, including the port of Pemex in Coatzacoalcos and its Lazaro Cardenas refinery in Minatitlan in the south.

Grace hit the ground well north of these cities.

Earlier in the week, Grace hit the Caribbean coast of Mexico, knocking down trees and causing power outages to about 700,000 people, but without causing any loss of life, authorities said.

It also wiped out Jamaica and Haiti, still ravaged by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, with torrential rains.

Reports by Stefanie Eschenbacher in Mexico City, Tamara Corro in Tecolutla and Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru Additional reports by Diego Ore in Mexico City Written by Dave Graham Edited by William Mallard, Will Dunham, Raissa Kasolowsky, Frances Kerry and Diane Craft

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