Tropical Storm Andres brushes Mexico; 1 killed

Published 11:57 am Tuesday, June 23, 2009

ACAPULCO, Mexico — Tropical Storm Andres flooded homes and knocked down trees along Mexico’s Pacific coast, killing at least one person as it headed toward a likely hurricane-force scrape with land today.

Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the strip of coast from just south of Manzanillo to near Puerto Vallarta. To the south, the storm dumped heavy rains on Acapulco, where flooding forced about 200 people to evacuate their homes on Monday.

A fisherman drowned when choppy currents overturned his boat in a lagoon Monday in Tecpan de Galeana, between Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, a state police report said. The sun peeked through cloudy skies in Acapulco today, but the government closed all schools.

Andres sped up as it headed on a course to graze the port city of Manzanillo at hurricane strength late today, then push along shore past towns such as Barra de Navidad that are home to some American and Canadian expatriates.

Rain poured down on Manzanillo, where authorities opened 14 shelters.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Andres could bring coastal storm surge as much as 3 feet above normal while dumping as much as 8 inches of rain in a few spots.

The storm was centered about 55 miles south-southeast of Manzanillo at 11 a.m. PDT today, and it had sustained winds near 70 mph, with higher gusts.

Tropical storm force winds extended out 70 miles from the center in some directions.

It was moving toward the northwest near 12 mph. The storm’s winds were expected to build to 75 mph, just over the minimum for a hurricane, by late today.

The forecast track showed it then weakening as it continues northwest along the coastline before veering west into the open Pacific and just south of the Los Cabos resorts at the tip of the Baja California peninsula Thursday morning.

Late Sunday, Andres became the first named storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season, which began May 15 and ends Nov. 30.