Hurricane Carlotta slams into Mexico’s Pacific coast

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hurricane Carlotta slammed into Mexico's resort-studded Pacific coast late Friday, June 15, toppling trees and lashing hotels while authorities evacuated people from low-lying areas, according to the Associated Press.

The rapidly changing hurricane made landfall as a Category 1 storm near Puerto Escondido, a laid-back port popular with surfers, and is expected to push inland and northward in the direction of Acapulco.

Carlotta had strengthened into a powerful Category 2 hurricane earlier Friday and forecasters had expected it to move northward, parallel to the coastline, possibly reaching Acapulco as a hurricane. But instead it moved inland and weakened. Forecasters now expect Carlotta to become a tropical storm on Saturday and a tropical depression on Sunday.

By late Friday night, Carlotta's winds had lessened to 90 mph (150 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. The center of the storm was about 10 miles (15 kms) northwest of Puerto Escondido and was moving to the northwest at about 10 mph (17 kph).