Mexico City, Oct. 14 (BNA) The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) and Mexican officials said Hurricane Pamela will fade away Wednesday evening after it toppled trees, damaged businesses and flooded streets in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa.
Mexico’s National Guard police said officers helped some people trapped in their homes by flooding, clearing rubble and dozens of fallen trees at the beach resort of Mazatlan. The National Guard added in a statement that some shops and restaurants in the area were damaged.
Mexican authorities have opened 40 temporary shelters in Sinaloa in anticipation of heavy rain and wind.
Reuters pictures showed palm fronds blowing in the wind and a bank with its windows smashed.
Sinaloa is the country’s largest producer of corn, Mexico’s primary grain, as well as a major producer of tomatoes and other fruits that feature prominently in the country’s agricultural exports to the United States.
The newest NHC consultant classified Pamela as a tropical depression about 255 miles (415 km) northeast of Mazatlan and said it was packing maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph).
“The Pamela center will continue to move over central Mexico until it dissipates,” the National Committee of the Red Cross said.
Pamela is set to unleash another 1 to 3 inches of rain in western Durango and northern Nayarit Wednesday evening, before raining parts of Texas and Oklahoma through Thursday.
Swellings from the Pamela are expected to affect parts of the southern Baja California peninsula, southwestern and western central Mexico through Wednesday evening, potentially resulting in “life-threatening” surfing and rip conditions, the commission added.
Before reaching Sinaloa, Pamela passed near the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, home to major tourist destinations such as Los Cabos, where no damage was reported.
MI