Mexico City - Hurricane Katia strengthened
on Wednesday evening as it churned off the Gulf coast of Mexico
before an expected turn towards land that could batter eastern
states with high winds and heavy rain, the U.S. National
Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
A Category 1 hurricane, Katia was 200 miles east of the port
of Tampico, blowing maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour
(129 km per hour), and may be close to major hurricane strength
by the time it is forecast to hit land this weekend, the NHC
said.
Category 1 is the NHC's weakest hurricane designation.
Category 5 is the strongest. Storms of Category 3 and above are
defined as major hurricanes.
There are now three hurricanes in the Atlantic. Hurricane
Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century and
a Category 5, howled past Puerto Rico on Wednesday and is on a
collision course with Florida.
Hurricane Jose in the open Atlantic, some 1 000 miles (1 610
km) east of the Caribbean's Lesser Antilles islands, could
become a Category 3 and eventually threaten the U.S. mainland.
Earlier in the day, Katia was slightly nearer to the Mexican
coast, and at about 10 p.m. CDT (0300 GMT) was moving
east-southeast at around 2 mph (4 kph), the center said.
The NHC said the storm should strengthen further and would
probably start drifting towards the southwest before it is
forecast to hit the state of Veracruz by early Saturday.
Katia has "worrying characteristics" because it is very
slow-moving and could dump a lot of rain on areas that have been
saturated in recent weeks, Luis Felipe Puente, head of Mexico's
national emergency services, told domestic television.
State oil and gas company Pemex has installations
in and around the coast of Veracruz, but the firm has not
reported any interruptions to its operations.
The storm is expected to bring total rainfall of 5 to 10
inches (13 to 25 cm) over northern Veracruz, and 2 to 5 inches
over southern Tamaulipas state, northeastern parts of the state
of Puebla, and southern Veracruz through Saturday morning.
The rains may cause flash floods and mudslides, especially
in mountainous areas, the NHC said.
The flurry of storm activity comes after Hurricane Harvey
killed about 60 and caused property damage estimated as high as
$180 billion after pummeling the coasts of Texas and Louisiana
with torrential rain and severe flooding.