Hurricane Henriette pounds Mexico

LOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Henriette roared toward farming states in mainland Mexico on Wednesday, threatening heavy rain and winds for large corn and tomato crops after pummeling the Pacific beach resort of Los Cabos.

Henriette, a relatively weak Category 1 storm that killed seven people including a foreign tourist on its route up the Pacific coast, swept into the Gulf of California with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.

Large waves were expected to batter the coastal states of Sonora and Sinaloa, where a storm last year ripped through the tomato crop, pushing up prices blamed for a brief inflation spike.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned of coastal surges of up to 5 feet and isolated downpours of up to 12 inches in mountainous areas.

"No significant change in strength is expected until landfall. Weakening is forecast once Henriette moves inland over mainland Mexico later today and tonight," it said.

Henriette killed six people over the weekend when it dumped rain on the coast around the resort of Acapulco as a tropical storm. A middle-aged foreign woman was killed walking on the beach on Monday as the storm's approach sent 13-feet (4-meter) waves crashing onto the shore along the Baja California peninsula.

Thousands of mainly U.S. tourists were told to stay in their hotels and authorities closed the Los Cabos airport on Tuesday.

Although the storm brought intense rain and winds to the normally sunny, desert-like state of Baja California, emergency authorities did not report any major damage.

Residents waiting out the storm in the city of La Paz were shaken by a magnitude 5 earthquake on Tuesday night, but no injuries or damage were reported.

In the Caribbean, rains from Hurricane Felix soaked Honduras on Wednesday, threatening dangerous flooding and mudslides after killing four people in neighboring Nicaragua.