Dean Downgraded to Tropical Storm

Hurricane Dean was downgraded to a tropical storm after surging ashore Wednesday near Poza Rica, Mexico.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Dean’s maximum sustained winds had decreased to near 70 mph, with higher gusts over higher terrain. The government of Mexico changed its hurricane warning to a tropical storm warning along the coast.

Dean was a Category 5 hurricane with wind gusts of 200 mph when it hit Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula early Tuesday, the third-most-powerful Atlantic hurricane at landfall, ranking behind the Florida Keys’ 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.

There were no storm-associated deaths reported in the Yucatan, but Dean was blamed for at least 13 deaths in Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique and St. Lucia.

Wednesday evening, Dean was moving west at near 17 mph and was expected to continue at that speed and direction until dissipating over the mountains of Central Mexico Wednesday night or early Thursday.

The National Hurricane Center said storm surge flooding was expected to subside Wednesday evening. But Dean also was expected to produce 5 to 10 inches of rain over Southern and Central Mexico, which could cause life-threatening floods and mudslides.