Hurricane Closes Mexican Oil Ports

VERACRUZ, Mexico —  Hurricane Stan slammed into Mexico’s gulf coast Tuesday, after forcing authorities to close one of the nation’s busiest ports and spawning related storms across the region that left at least 66 people dead, most of them from landslides in El Salvador.

The hurricane, which whipped up 80-mph winds before being downgraded to a tropical storm, came ashore along a sparsely populated stretch of coastline south of Veracruz, a busy port 185 miles east of Mexico City.

The storm’s outer bands knocked down trees, flooded neighborhoods and closed some highways, authorities said. State officials said seven people, including two children, were injured, most by falling trees or roofs that collapsed in the communities of Alvarado and Montepio, south of here and closer to where Stan came ashore.

All three of Mexico’s gulf coast ports for loading crude oil were closed as a precaution, but the shutdowns weren’t expected to affect oil prices.

Forecasters said the hurricane spawned separate storms across Central America and southern Mexico, provoking flooding and landslides. About 49 people had been killed during two days of flooding in El Salvador, said Rene Figueroa, the country’s interior minister.

More than 16,700 others were evacuated to 167 shelters all over the country, he said.

Nine people had died in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadoreans killed in a boat wreck, Civil Defense official Maj. Porfirio Castrillo said.

Four deaths were reported in Honduras and at least three in Guatemala.

In Costa Rica, a 36-year-old woman was killed early Tuesday when her home was buried by a landslide as she slept.