Lisa, downgraded to a tropical storm, was en route to Mexico on Thursday after hitting Belize the day before, where it caused flooding and property damage.
• Also read: IN PICTURES | Lisa, now a hurricane, is approaching the coast of Central America
Both Mexico and Belize lifted their severe weather warnings after the ex-hurricane weakened and moved west at a speed of 10 mph (16 km/h), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Maximum wind speeds have been reduced to 47 mph, but forecasters warned the Central American tourist coast and Yucatan Peninsula should continue to monitor them.
The storm is expected to weaken further by the end of the day, becoming a tropical depression before dissipating over Mexico.
Lisa is expected to bring heavy daytime rain across northern Guatemala and southeastern Mexico before gradually weakening as it moves inland.
The NHC has predicted Lisa could bring up to 250 millimeters of rain to parts of Belize, northern Guatemala and southern Mexico.
In Guatemala, heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in the northern department of Peten on the border with Belize.
About 143 people were evacuated and 48 remained in an emergency shelter, Oscar Cossio, secretary of the National Coordination for Disaster Prevention (CONRED), said during a news conference. Guatemala has also suspended classes in schools in the north of the country.
Lisa had arrived Wednesday at 21:20 GMT near the mouth of the Sibun River about 15 km southwest of Belize City on the mainland, where AFP was experiencing torrential rain and winds of up to 140 km/h with flooded roads and, according to the NHC Floods watched trees.
“It’s very dangerous for us” because in Belize “it floods quickly even with moderate rain,” Jasmin Ayuso, a 21-year-old secretary, told AFP.
In addition to issuing a red alert for Lisa along the entire coast, the government of Belize (population 405,000) had declared a state of emergency in two districts with a dawn curfew, the closure of schools and the opening of emergency shelters.
Most businesses also remained closed and some areas were without power. Local media showed damage in Belize City, the country’s former capital on the north coast, and other nearby cities.
In Honduras, authorities issued a warning for islands and a northern region due to Lisa’s passage into a tropical storm on Tuesday, but a warning was eventually lifted.
However, El Salvador, which should have been relatively spared, has put more than twenty communities on alert that have been identified as being at risk of flooding or landslides.
Lisa comes three weeks after Category 1 Hurricane Julia swept through the region and claimed around 100 lives, half of whom drowned in Honduras and the rest were buried by landslides in Guatemala and El Salvador.
It’s the 12th named storm this season, according to the NHC — the hurricane season running from June through November in the Atlantic. To get a name, a storm must deliver wind speeds of at least 40 mph. Last year’s season saw 21 storms named.