Floods fear as hurricane drenches mountains

A sprawling Hurricane Dean slammed into Mexico for the second time in as many days and quickly stretched across to the Pacific Ocean, drenching the central mountains with rain that swelled rivers before weakening into a tropical storm.

Coming ashore with top sustained winds of 100mph, Dean’s centre hit the tourism and fishing town of Tecolutla shortly after civil defence workers loaded the last evacuees on to army trucks and headed to inland shelters.