MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The eye of Hurricane Rick came ashore on Mexico’s Pacific coast early on Monday, lashing the region with 100 mile-per-hour (MPH) winds and heavy rains that could trigger flash flooding and mudslides, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 105 MPH (165 KM/H), was 15 miles (25 kilometers) north-northeast of the port of Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan state as of 7:00 A.M. local time (1200 GMT), the Miami-based NHC said in a public advisory.
“Rapid weakening is expected today while Rick moves over land, and Rick is forecast to dissipate over the mountainous terrain of southern Mexico tonight or Tuesday,” it said.
Rick is forecast to move farther inland over southern Mexico throughout Monday and expected to produce 5 to 10 inches of rain, with isolated storm total amounts of 20 inches across parts of the Mexican states of Guerrero and Michoacan through Tuesday.
The heavy rains “will likely produce flash flooding and mudslides,” the NHC said.
Mexico’s civil protection agency told residents in the southern parts of those states to stay indoors as of Sunday evening.
Guerrero’s education ministry said classes in the coastal area would be suspended on Monday, warning of intense rain, strong gusts of wind and high waves in the Costa Grande region.
Officials in Guerrero and Michoacan as well as the coastal states of Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit were opening shelters in areas expected to get downpours, a government official told Televisa News.
(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; editing by Barbara Lewis)
