After hitting eastern Mexico with torrential rains and powerful winds, Hurricane Grace downgraded this Saturday morning to a tropical storm, although it still discharges heavy rains as it continues its path towards the center of the country.
The states that suffer torrential rains are Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Puebla, San Luis Potosí and Veracruz; with intense rains are Hidalgo, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Querétaro, Tamaulipas and Tlaxcala, and very heavy rains are reported in Guanajuato and Morelos, and heavy in the State of Mexico and Mexico City.
Early this Saturday, Grace, one of the most powerful storms in years to hit the Gulf of Mexico coast, made landfall as a powerful Category 3 hurricane in Veracruz, causing power outages and the downing of trees. After entering the country, it was downgraded to category 1.
At 10:00 a.m., Grace was located about 40 kilometers north-northeast of Mexico City and was blowing maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometers per hour (km / h), with stronger gusts, as it continued to move west. -Southwest at 20 km / h, according to data from the National Meteorological Service (SMN), directed by Germán Santoyo, and the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Half a million users were left without electricity after Grace passed through the states of Veracruz, Hidalgo, Puebla and San Luis Potosí, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) reported.
Local authorities urged the population to take shelter in their homes or shelters set up in high parts as the storm approached the metropolitan area of the Valley of Mexico, made up of the capital and dozens of adjacent municipalities that are home to more than 22 million population.
Bad weather forced the cancellation of several flights in the cities affected by Grace, including to or from Miami, the Mexico City international airport reported.
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Damage to hundreds of homes
The impact and advance of Grace, with intense rains and winds of up to 190 kilometers per hour, left hundreds of homes damaged in the state of Veracruz and so far no fatalities have been reported.
The effects of the meteorological phenomenon were felt with greater intensity in the north of Veracruz, in an oil-rich, rural and indigenous region, where its inhabitants reported hours of anxiety and terror.
In the municipalities of Poza Rica, Tihuatlan, Cazones and the Sierra de Papantla, preliminary reports show hundreds of damaged homes, fallen trees, fences and spectacular announcements.
A wide swath of populations are without electricity and cut off due to the closure of federal, state and local highways; in addition, the cellular communication was cut off.
The National Water Commission (Conagua) reported that the Cazones, Actopan and La Antigua rivers, the rivers with the highest influx in the north of the state, exceeded their critical scale in some areas, for which they issued a general alert to possible overflows.
The rains of more than 300 millimeters per square meter from Grace’s cloud bands affect the entire mountainous region of Veracruz and the northern highlands of the Central state of Puebla, where there are floods and floods in urban areas and rural communities.
Rainfall in the mountains is generating the so-called “water avenues” in the main rivers that flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Mexican Army has mobilized with its DNIII Plan to help the population and jointly with civil authorities carry out rescue tasks in rural communities and urban centers, without now having an exact number of damages.
After crossing the Caribbean, the cyclone became a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale for the first time early Thursday before making landfall on the touristy Mexican Caribbean coast. Later, it was temporarily downgraded to a tropical storm and entered the Gulf of Mexico.
So far, Grace has not caused deaths in the country, although it temporarily left about 700,000 people without power in the touristy Yucatan Peninsula, where it also caused flooding, falling trees and detachment of roofs.
After crossing the country, meteorologists hope Grace will reach the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, where she would regain strength.
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