Hurricane reaches Mexico

Hurricane Norbert has made landfall over mainland Mexico but is weakening, weather officials have said.

The Category 1 hurricane's centre made landfall about 25 miles southeast of Huatabampo with maximum winds near 85mph, according to the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

Since then, the hurricane's maximum winds have decreased to near 75mph and rapid weakening is likely as the hurricane moves over Mexico's mountainous terrain.

Remnants of the storm would likely move into the southwestern United States Sunday evening, the centre said.

Norbert crossed over the Mexican mainland after tearing off roofs and forcing hundreds of people to flee widespread flooding on the Baja California peninsula.

It hit land near Puerto Charley on Baja's southwest coast as a Category 2 hurricane, but weakened to Category 1 after emerging over the Gulf of California, the centre said.

Baja residents fled to shelters in school buses and army trucks as floodwaters rose in their homes. Winds uprooted palm trees and the water rose knee-high in some streets of the town of Puerto San Carlos.

Streets turned into rushing, knee-deep rivers in Ciudad Constitucion, on the southern peninsula.

More than 2,000 people were in the city's shelters, many of them from coastal villages where nearly all homes had lost their roofs, said Miguel Arevalos, the local Civil Protection director.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.