Hurricane Barbara
A satellite image shows the southern Pacific coastal area of Mexico as Hurricane Barbara neared the coastline Wednesday. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / May 29, 2013)
By Richard Fausset
May 29, 2013, 1:13 p.m.
MEXICO CITY — Gaining power as it roared toward Mexico’s Pacific coast, Tropical Storm Barbara was officially reclassified as Hurricane Barbara on Wednesday as it threatened to bring high winds, flash floods and landslides to the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
As of 11 a.m. Pacific time, the center of the Category I hurricane was about 20 miles south of the coastline in the southern state of Chiapas, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, the hurricane center reported.
Barbara was moving north-northeast at 10 mph and was expected to forge a path across the narrow southern waist of Mexico late Wednesday and Thursday, when it will probably reach Mexico’s Gulf coast.
Ports along the Pacific coast were reportedly shut down. In the resort city of Acapulco, the Agence France-Presse news service reported heavy rainfall and flooding Wednesday that swept  away at least three cars.
The city of Coatzacoalcos, a Gulf Coast port and oil and gas production center crucial to Mexico’s petroleum industry, is in the projected path of the storm, though Barbara is expected to weaken significantly as it moves overland.
A storm surge of 3 to 5 feet was expected on the Pacific coast, as well as 4 to 8 inches of rain over eastern Oaxaca and western Chiapas. A hurricane warning is in effect in the Oaxacan beach resort of Puerto Angel, extending eastward along a section of the Chiapas coast.
Mexico’s national meteorological society warned residents in the southern states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco and Campeche to be prepared for intense rain, strong winds, floods, landslides and rising rivers.