Hurricane Bonnie weakened Wednesday after becoming the first major storm of the eastern Pacific season while off southern Mexico, though it wasn’t a threat to land.
Bonnie was moving farther away from Mexico’s Pacific coast four days after crossing Central America as a tropical storm from the Caribbean and dropping heavy rain, contributing to at least two deaths.
Forecasters said they expected the hurricane, which grew into a Category 3 storm Tuesday before losing strength, heading generally westward farther out into the open sea. But the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Bonnie had caused rough surf on parts on of Mexico’s southwestern coast.
Bonnie had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph) early Wednesday, according to the hurricane center. It was centered 355 miles (570 kilometers) south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes, near the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta, and was moving west at 14 mph (22 kph).
The storm caused heavy flooding while crossing sodden Nicaragua after making landfall as a tropical storm on the country’s Caribbean coast late Friday.
Two people died in separate events related to flooding, Nicaragua’s army said in a statement. It said 40-year-old Alberto Flores Landero died trying to cross the swollen Mati river in Siuna in Nicaragua’s northeast and Juan Carlos Alemán, 38, died trying to help passengers from a bus that fell into the Ali Bethel river in the same area.
Source: United News of Bangladesh