Hurricane Dean slams Mexico's Gulf coast

By Tomas Bravo

POZA RICA, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Dean ripped into Mexico's Gulf coast on Wednesday with screaming winds and torrential rain that killed two people, flooded towns and forced thousands into shelters, but then weakened rapidly.

Large trees felled by wind were blocking main roads in the oil town of Poza Rica as Dean, packing winds of up to 100 mph (160 kph), made landfall in Mexico for the second time.

"It's spectacular, it's very powerful," said hotel manager Felipe Torres near where the center of the storm hit land.

One man was killed during Dean's two-day rampage in Mexico when howling winds -- at one stage the hurricane was at the fiercest Category 5 level -- blew down a wall on top of him in his house in Puebla state, authorities said.

Another died in Veracruz state when he touched a power cable as he was on the roof of his house trying to carry out repairs during the storm.

Haiti on Wednesday also increased its death toll to nine, taking the total number of killed in Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico and other parts of the Caribbean region to 19.

It finally weakened to a tropical depression on Wednesday afternoon and was not expected to threaten the U.S. coastline.

Dean lost strength soon after landing near Poza Rica but its rains fell in Mexico City more than 125 miles away. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it would fizzle out overnight.

"Dean is expected to dissipate over the mountains of central Mexico tonight or early Thursday," it said.

But the state government of Veracruz warned of heavy rains, which often cause mudslides in poor mountain villages after hurricanes pass.

"It's raining and it's going to keep raining intensely in the coming days," said Gov. Fidel Herrera.

Dean pounded Mayan villages and beach resorts in a run across the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday and then passed through the Campeche Sound where the vast majority of Mexico's crude for export to the United States is produced.

OIL PRODUCTION

Mexico's state oil monopoly, Pemex, said oil production, 80 percent of which was cut due to the storm, would begin to return to normal on Friday.

Dean was the first hurricane in the Atlantic basin to strike land as a Category 5 since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.