Hurricane Max slams into Mexico, then weakens

MEXICO CITY — Hurricane Max slammed into Mexico’s southern Pacific coast Thursday, dumping rain on an area east of the resort city of Acapulco before rapidly weakening into a tropical storm as it moved inland into Guerrero state.

The coastline where Max made landfall is sparsely populated and dotted with fishing villages.

Guerrero Gov. Hector Astudillo warned that the rains would continue all night. Near Acapulco, the government worked frantically to widen a channel to the sea to prevent a coastal lagoon from flooding.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center had earlier issued a hurricane warning for the coastline between Zihuatanejo and Punta Maldonado, and said the storm could bring “life-threatening flash floods and rainfall” to Guerrero and Oaxaca states.

The center said the rapidly weakening Max should become a tropical depression in the coming hours before dissipating early Friday.

Max had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was located about 80 miles east of Acapulco Thursday night. It was heading toward the east at 7 mph, the hurricane center reported.

Also Thursday, Tropical Storm Norma formed farther out to the west in the Pacific and was expected to strengthen and head toward the resort-studded Baja California Peninsula.