MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Hurricane Orlene sped toward Mexico’s southwestern coast on Monday morning, making landfall in the Pacific state of Sinaloa as a Category 1 storm, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 km/h), weakened from a Category 2 storm before hitting land, the Miami-based NHC said in its latest public advisory, and is expected to continue to weaken.
Orlene arrived onshore just north of the border between the states of Sinaloa and Nayarit at around 7:45 a.m. MDT (13:45 UTC) and was around 45 miles (75 km) southeast of the port city of Mazatlan, according to the NHC.
“The system should dissipate tonight or Tuesday,” the NHC said in an earlier report.
The storm could dump torrential rains and cause flash flooding, along with possible landslides, according to the NHC.
The Islas Marias islands off the coast could see six to 10 inches of rain, with isolated areas getting up to 14 inches. The Mexican states of Nayarit and Sinaloa may see three to six inches with local amounts of 10 inches, and Jalisco and Colima states one to three inches.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry, editing by Ed Osmond)
