
Hurricane Pamela will dissipate after knocking down trees, damaging businesses and flooding streets in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) and Mexican officials say.
Mexico's National Guard said officers helped people trapped in their homes by flooding, and were working to clear debris and dozens of fallen trees in the beach resort of Mazatlan.
Some shops and restaurants in the area were damaged, the National Guard said in a statement.
Mexican authorities opened 40 temporary shelters in Sinaloa in anticipation of heavy rains and winds.
Sinaloa is the country's top grower of corn, Mexico's staple grain, as well as a major producer of tomatoes and other fruit that figures prominently in the country's agricultural exports.
The NHC's latest advisory ranked Pamela as a tropical depression about 415km northeast of Mazatlan and said it was packing maximum sustained winds of 55km/h.
"The centre of Pamela will continue to move over Central Mexico until dissipation," the NHC said.
Pamela is set to unleash upto another 75mm of rain in western Durango state and northern Nayarit state on Wednesday evening, before bringing rain to parts of Texas and Oklahoma through Thursday.
Swells generated by Pamela are expected to affect portions of the southern Baja California peninsula and southwestern and west-central mainland Mexico through Wednesday evening, producing "life-threatening" surf and rip conditions, the NHC said.
Before reaching Sinaloa, Pamela passed near the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, home to key tourist destinations such as Los Cabos, where no damage was reported.
Australian Associated Press