By Fabiola Sánchez - The Associated Press
Hurricane Grace reached category 2 off the coast of the Mexican state of Veracruz with sustained winds of up to 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC, for its acronym) on Friday night. in English).
The phenomenon strengthened after having degraded to a tropical storm when it made landfall for the first time in the Yucatan peninsula, right in the main tourist area of Mexico.
It is expected to make landfall north of the port of Veracruz between Friday night and Saturday morning.
The eye of the hurricane is located 110 miles (170 kilometers) east of Tuxpan, in Veracruz, and 215 miles east-northeast of the city of Veracruz, and was moving over the Gulf of Mexico to the west at 11 miles per hour (17 kilometers per hour).
Its current trajectory suggests that it will make landfall in the coastal region of small fishing villages and beach resorts between Tuxpan and the port of Veracruz.
Later it would head towards the heart of the country and the great region of Mexico City, weakening as it passed through the mountains.
[Hurricane Grace makes landfall near the Category 1 Mayan temples of Tulum]
The Mexican coastline from Puerto Veracruz to Cabo Rojo is under a hurricane warning.
The port authorities have already suspended the circulation of vehicles in several areas.
Grace could drop 6 to 12 inches of rain in Veracruz, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, northern Querétaro and northern San Luis Potosí, posing a threat of flash floods, mudslides and urban waterlogging.
The Mexican Caribbean is paralyzed before the arrival of Grace as a category one hurricane
Aug. 19, 202102: 40
Grace made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane for the first time Thursday morning near Tulum, the resort town famous for its Mayan ruins.
Visitors and residents had to seek shelter for hours from the destruction of the weather system.
"The only thing I have left is what I'm wearing," said Carlos González, a 35-year-old construction worker, who took shelter with his wife and one-and-a-half-year-old son in a school converted into a shelter.
"I knew that my house was not going to hold because it is made of cardboard.
When the wind came I was very scared and I decided to leave," he said.
[How to prepare for a hurricane?]
Authorities reported no fatalities, but many streets were blocked by downed branches and trees that toppled power lines, leaving thousands without power Thursday.
Grace makes landfall in Yucatan with winds of over 80 miles per hour
Aug. 19, 202101: 05
Most of the shops remained closed, but in the few that did open there were long lines of people waiting to buy food.
Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín said the storm had left some 84,000 people without power in Cancun and 65,000 in Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Puerto Aventura and Tulum.
But he said no deaths had been reported.
Palm trees are whipped by the winds of Hurricane Grace in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico, on Thursday, August 19, 2021.AP Photo / Marco Ugarte)
One lane of the highway between Playa del Carmen and Tulum was blocked by a fallen traffic signal.
A gas station was destroyed when a large canopy collapsed, crushing two cars.
Before arriving in Mexico, Grace wrecked Haiti, hours after having suffered a powerful earthquake, and was noticed in Cuba and the Cayman Islands.