MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Lorenzo was downgraded to a tropical storm over Mexico on Friday hours after it swept ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, dumping heavy rain on the already waterlogged state of Veracruz. Lorenzo lost force after it made landfall near the Gulf of Mexico port city of Tuxpan, and its maximum wind speed had dropped to 65 mph (100 kph) by 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was not seen affecting Mexico's oil production but around 100,000 people living between Tuxpan and the town of Nautla further south were evacuated to storm shelters.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Lorenzo was downgraded to a tropical storm over Mexico on Friday hours after it swept ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, dumping heavy rain on the already waterlogged state of Veracruz.
Lorenzo lost force after it made landfall near the Gulf of Mexico port city of Tuxpan, and its maximum wind speed had dropped to 65 mph (100 kph) by 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The storm was not seen affecting Mexico's oil production but around 100,000 people living between Tuxpan and the town of Nautla further south were evacuated to storm shelters.
"Rapid weakening is forecast today as Lorenzo proceeds inland and this small system will likely become a tropical depression later today and dissipate by tonight or early tomorrow," the Miami-based hurricane center said.
Lorenzo was the third hurricane to hit Mexico in the last few weeks after Dean and Henriette pounded its Caribbean and Pacific coasts.
The hurricane center forecast flooding up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) above normal tide levels, dangerous battering waves and up to 10 inches of rainfall in Veracruz state.
Civil protection officials in the coffee-growing region said on Thursday some 100,000 people would spend the night on camp beds in schools and public halls further inland. "We started evacuating them in the afternoon," a spokeswoman said.
The center of the storm was 30 miles south-southwest of Tuxpan and moving west at 7 mph (11 kph), the hurricane center said.
Lorenzo hit the Mexican coast as the weakest grade of hurricane, packing 80 mph (130 kph) winds, around midnight (0500 GMT).
Much of Veracruz state, especially north of Tuxpan, is flooded after weeks of relentless rain. Tuxpan is primarily a grain port but also home to a large Navy fleet.
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OIL OPERATION OUT OF RISK
Oil ports in the Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico were all open to shipping, although some reported large sea swells. The ports are east of where Lorenzo hit.
Mexico's state oil company, Pemex, saw no impact on its oil installations and, given the path of the storm, was not planning emergency measures, a company official said on Thursday.
Another tropical storm, Karen, weakened as it churned through the Atlantic on Thursday some 755 miles_ east of the Windward Islands. It was expected to lose more strength as it moves northwest, missing the Caribbean.
The 2007 Atlantic storm season has generated three hurricanes, including Humberto, which startled coastal residents of Texas and Louisiana this month by unexpectedly strengthening into a hurricane before landfall, and two ferocious maximum-strength Category 5 storms.
One of the Category 5 hurricanes, Dean, swiped Jamaica and then plowed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, killing at least 27 people. The other, Felix, tore into Central America, killing at least 130 in Nicaragua.
(Additional reporting by Alistair Bell and Chris Aspin)
