Hurricane Katia made landfall Friday near the working-class beach resort of Tecolutla in the state of Veracruz on the Mexican Gulf coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
It lost some strength before it landed about 115 miles (185 km) northwest of the port city of Veracruz as a Category 1 storm with sustained winds 75 mph (120 km/h). It rapidly weakened further over land into a tropical storm. The center said Katia was expected to dissipate over the course of Saturday.
But it was still expected to bring life-threatening floods and storm surge off the Gulf, though the extent of the storm's impact was unclear in the dark of night.
Veracruz state officials said in a statement Friday that the storm could cause landslides and urged people living below hills and slopes to be prepared to evacuate.
Luis Felipe Puente, head of Mexico’s national emergency services, said this week that Katia has “worrying characteristics” because it is very slow-moving and could dump a lot of rain on areas that have been saturated in recent weeks.
State oil and gas company Pemex has installations in and around the coast of Veracruz, but the firm has not reported any disruption to its operations.
