Hurricane Stan smacks into Mexico's Gulf, 65 dead in Centam

Hurricane Stan smacked into Mexico's Gulf coast on Tuesday, forcing evacuations and shutting down oil ports after killing at least 65 people in Central America.

The storm came ashore 85 miles southeast of the city of Veracruz as a Category One hurricane with winds of nearly 80 mph, although it then weakened to a tropical storm.

Small groups of Mexican Navy sailors were among the few who ventured onto the darkened streets of downtown Veracruz, a colonial port city, in lashing rain and high winds that snapped branches from palm trees. Fishing launches hauled out of the sea ahead of Stan's arrival lined the shorefront, parked like cars. Rainwater poured off the balconies of Spanish colonial buildings.

Gusts blew the roofs off poor residents' flimsy shacks, injuring four people in the state of Veracruz, and hundreds were evacuated when rivers overflowed.

Veracruz resident Juan Alvarado, 52, feared for his wood and tin home. "I am worried the wind will take it away. My three children are there," he said, reports the Reuters. I.L.