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. ?There are no deaths but things are difficult. It is too much water,? said a spokeswoman for the state civil protection agency.

Salvador tragedy

Rain lashed a shantytown on the outskirts of Veracruz, where residents watched the water swell from a lagoon into neighbors? homes, and debated whether to flee to shelters. ?If it rises any more we?ll have to go,? said Carolina Cagaltoto, a 25 year-old mother of two. ?But I don?t want to go because (people) are stealing.? In the mountainous southern state of Chiapas, close to 5,000 people fled to high ground as raging rivers overflowed into town streets, sweeping away buildings and cars. Stan crossed the Yucatan Peninsula during the weekend, unleashing heavy rains in Central America, where at least 65 people were killed in floods, mudslides and rough weather at sea.

El Salvador was hardest hit with at least 49 deaths, while the toll in Nicaragua was six. Eight people were reported dead in Guatemala and two in Honduras. Rescue workers pulled a dead 15-day-old baby from under a mudslide that crashed into a house in San Salvador, and carried it away wrapped in a Red Cross T-shirt. Six members of the same family died buried in the mud. Mexico closed its main oil exporting ports ? Dos Bocas, Cayo Arcos and Coatzacoalcos ? but it was unclear if deliveries would be affected.

State oil monopoly Pemex evacuated 270 workers from five oil exploration platforms in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Stan?s arrival. Rains from Stan reached Mexico City, more than 250 miles away. Coffee is grown in Veracruz?s hilly inland region but there was no immediate word on possible crop damage.

Frank Jack DANIEL