Hurricane Barbara made landfall on Mexico’s southern Pacific coast on Wednesday, leaving at least two dead, including a 61-year-old US surfer who drowned in rough seas, authorities said.
Twelve Mexican fishermen who went out to sea on Monday night, before word of the approaching bad weather came in, are missing, a local mayor said.
The storm was later downgraded to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 75kph as of late Wednesday, the US National Hurricane Center said.
It had made landfall in the state of Chiapas, a rural region near the neighboring state of Oaxaca. Hundreds of people were being evacuated from affected areas in Chiapas, state Civil Protection officials said.
The US man “was dragged by the waves and died” after he ignored a ban on entering the beach in the town of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca, state Civil Protection director Manuel Maza told reporters.
The second victim was a 27-year-old man who was swept away by an overflowing river in the Oaxaca town of Pinotepa Nacional, Mayor Carlos Sarabia said.
In the state of Guerrero, heavy rains flooded some streets of the resort city of Acapulco, with water levels reaching 52cm, an Agence France-Presse correspondent said.
Oaxaca authorities had urged residents to stay at home, while the ports of Salina Cruz, Huatulco, Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido were shut. Some 200 families were taken to shelters, officials said.
Barbara grew into a Category 1 hurricane — the lowest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale — before making landfall west of the Chiapas town of Tonala, the US National Hurricane Center said.
In a 3am GMT bulletin yesterday, the center predicted a steady weakening of the storm and said Barbara would degenerate to a “remnant low” by yesterday.
Mexico’s National Water Commission warned that Barbara’s winds could affect the neighboring states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Veracruz and Guerrero.
Late on Wednesday the storm was moving north at 15kph, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Tropical force winds extend outward up to 75 kilometers from the storm’s center.
Barbara was forecast to dump up to 25cm of rain over eastern Oaxaca and western Chiapas, with as much as 50cm possibly falling in isolated areas of southeastern Oaxaca, the center said.
“These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides,” it said.
In March last year, two girls died and 25,000 homes were affected when Hurricane Carlotta tore across Oaxaca.
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