Hurricane Agatha: Pacific season’s first hurricane makes landfall in Mexico

Bringing torrential rains and the threat of flooding as the first named storm in the eastern Pacific this year, Hurricane Agatha plowed into beach resorts on Mexico's southern Pacific coast.

Agatha, a Category 2 storm, is the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in May in the eastern Pacific.

According to the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC), Agatha barreled ashore blowing sustained winds of 105 mph (169 kph) west of the beach town of Puerto Angel in Oaxaca state, before weakening as it moved inland.

"Rapid weakening is expected as the hurricane moves farther inland. Agatha is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm tonight, and dissipate over southeastern Mexico by late Tuesday," it said.

Civil protection coordinator Oscar Valencia told the Milenio television channel that authorities have opened around 200 storm shelters with room for up to 26,800 people.

According to him, hotels provided refuge to the estimated 5,200 national and foreign tourists in the danger zone.

Predicting "life-threatening surf and rip current conditions," and "large and destructive waves," NHC added that "storm surge is expected to produce extremely dangerous coastal flooding".

Mexico's meteorological service warned of possible overflows and landslides in Oaxaca and neighboring Chiapas state, home to several major rivers.

With isolated maximums of 20 inches (500 millimeters), the storm was expected to drop 10 to 16 inches (250 to 400 millimeters) of rain on parts of Oaxaca according to NHC.

While a rock and mudslide blocked the highway between that town and the state capital, Oaxaca state’s civil defense agency showed families hustling into a shelter in Pochutla.

Grace, a Category 3 hurricane, was the deadliest storm that hit Mexico as it killed 11 people in the eastern states of Veracruz and Puebla.

(With inputs from agencies)

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