Hurricane Grace reduced to a tropical cyclone over a landfall in Mexico

Veracruz, Mexico | Hurricane Grace lost power in making landfall off the east coast of Mexico on Saturday and was reduced to a “tropical storm,” the U.S. Hurricane Monitoring Center (NHC) said, but at least eight people were killed in the state of Veracruz.

Also read: Hurricane Henry becomes a Category 1 hurricane

According to the NHC, Grace is blowing at a speed of 110 km / h and 20 km / h at a distance of 40 km from Mexico City.

It is expected to “weaken into a tropical depression overnight and disperse on Sunday,” the center predicted.

Grace landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on the Sapphire-Simpson scale (out of 5) in the municipality of Tecolut, north of Veracruz.

“Unfortunately, seven of us were killed,” said Kaitlahuak Garcia, the state’s governor.

The eastern state authorities announced the eighth victim shortly after.

There is also physical damage such as roofs and fallen trees, power cuts.

The area was on high alert as floods and landslides broke out on Friday.

“Grace quickly became a major hurricane,” the NHC said overnight, sending it to Category 3 shortly after it was first classified in Category 2.

After the storm passed, authorities were on high alert as the river overflowed mainly in Veracruz and there was a risk of landslides breaking.

In a message on Twitter, Garcia warned residents living near eight rivers that “floods will occur in the next few hours”.

Authorities in Puebla, Hidalgo (center), San Luis Potos (north) and Tamoulipas (northeast) also warned of the risk of flooding and landslides due to grace rains, but it started raining in Mexico City this morning.

South of Tamoulipas state, some streets were reported flooded, while in Tejitlan municipality, in the state of Puebla, trees and signs fell and some buildings were damaged.

At the port of Veracruz, businesses put up boards and guards on windows and doors, and fishermen resorted to 300 boats.

“We spend many days without fishing, almost a week, we are affected like 35,000 fishermen, because we can not go out,” Isabel Pastrana Vazquez, president of the Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives of Veracruz, told AFP.

Call to get shelter at altitude

Residents secured their homes after storing and storing water.

Authorities announced that 200 shelters had been set up and were ready to activate another 2,000 if needed.

This is the second time Grace has reached Mexico after spending Thursday there with no deaths or major property damage. Then classified into Category 1, it landed near the Libra seaside resort on the Caribbean coast of Mexico on Thursday morning. The planes were grounded and tourists had to spend the night in special shelters.

Grace was reduced to a tropical storm on dry land. But it has gained strength in the Gulf of Mexico more than expected.

Neighboring El Salvador has issued an early warning due to hurricane-related rains.

See also …