TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Paula, the 16th named storm of the busy 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, spun along Honduras' Caribbean coast on Monday and took aim at Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
Paula was expected to strengthen into a hurricane on Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Weather forecasts showed it could hit Mexico's popular Caribbean resort of Cancun. Authorities in Honduras closed schools and warned of flooding in some villages as heavy rains reached the coast.
"Paula continues to strengthen and is expected to become a hurricane soon," the center said.
The storm in the southwest Caribbean was carrying top winds of 70 miles per hour and moving northwestward at a speed of 10 miles per hour.
It was located about 90 miles east of Isla Guanaja in Honduras.
High winds knocked over trees and rain swept away several wooden houses in remote Honduran coastal towns. Small mudslides caused by the rain blocked some roads, but there were no reports of injuries or deaths, Honduran newspaper La Prensa said on its website.
Mexico's government issued a hurricane warning from Punta Gruesa to Cancun. A tropical storm warning was also in effect for the coast of Honduras along the border with Nicaragua.
Paula is expected to bring heavy rains in eastern Honduras, parts of the Yucatan peninsula, and possibly in mountainous areas of Nicaragua and Honduras, threatening flash flooding and mudslides, the center said.
The six-month Atlantic hurricane season, which ends on November 30, has produced five major hurricanes this year out of the eight that have formed. The United States has so far escaped a significant landfall.
(Reporting by Pascal Fletcher and Kevin Gray in Miami and Orfa Mejia in Tegucigalpa; editing by Chris Wilson)
