The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Marie weakened to a Category 2 storm early Tuesday but continued kicking up high swells along Mexico’s northern Pacific coast and threatened to raise dangerous waves along the Southern California coast.
The U.S. Hurricane Center in Miami said Marie’s maximum sustained winds decreased to 105 mph (165 kph). Additional weakening was forecast and the storm was expected to lose hurricane status in the next day or so.
Marie was centered about 550 miles (880 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California and was moving northwest near 14 mph (22 kph).
Swells provoked by the storm were affecting much of Mexico’s Pacific coast and the Hurricane Center was warning of dangerous surf and rip current conditions.
Hurricane-force winds extended up to 60 miles (95 kilometers) away from the storm’s center, with tropical storm-force winds reaching out to 275 miles (445 kilometers).
The southern Pacific coast state of Oaxaca requested federal disaster relief after about 10,000 homes were either damaged, flooded or cut off by mudslides on the state’s mountainous rural roads due to rains associated with Marie last week. One man was injured in a mudslide but there were no reported deaths, the state government said late Sunday.
The government of Baja California Sur, closer to the hurricane’s current location, said it would cancel some classes in the resort cities of Los Cabos as a precautionary measure.
Swells generated by Marie were expected to reach Southern California by Tuesday, and could cause life-threatening surf and rip currents, as well as minor coastal flooding, the hurricane center in Miami said.
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