Tropical storm Rick threatens flash floods in MexicoAFP/File – Fishermen of Las Arenitas in Sinaloa state, northern Mexico, take their boats out of the shore, prior …

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Tropical storm Rick made landfall Wednesday in northwestern Mexico having lost its punch as a former top-strength hurricane, but still threatened the region with heavy rain and flash floods, US forecasters said.

Rick's eye hit Mexico's northwestern Pacific coast at 7:00 am (1400 GMT), some 15 miles (25 kilometers) north of the port of Mazatlan, said the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center.

The storm, which was downgraded early Tuesday from hurricane status, was packing winds of 50 miles (85 kilometers) an hour.

With possible rainfall of 10 inches (25 centimeters) over Sinaloa and the central state of Durango in the next day, the NHC warned the rains "could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides."

The storm system had become a shadow of the category-five monster it was over the weekend.

Giant waves whipped up by Rick caused one death on Sunday and forced the evacuation of some of Los Cabos' famous tourist beaches.

Baja California also was battered in early September by Hurricane Jimena, which caused floods that killed at least one person.

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