Hurricane Adrian Slams El Salvador; Costa Rica Affected
Hurricane Adrian slammed into El Salvador late Thursday, cutting off power and unleashing heavy rains that could cause severe flooding.

Some 14,000 people were evacuated as the storm bore down on the Salvadoran coast.

The eastern Pacific's first storm of the season hit west of the capital, San Salvador. It was the first recorded Pacific hurricane to strike the country.

Late Thursday, Adrian was swirling just off the Salvadoran coast, slightly west of Puerto La Libertad, the beach resort and seafood center closest to the capital San Salvador. Streets were deserted as rains sprayed across an increasingly agitated surf and waves pounded at the pier.

At least one death was linked to the storm. A military pilot died Wednesday when he crashed a small plane that he was ferrying from San Salvador's civilian airport to a military base as a precaution against the heavy winds.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center, relying on data from a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane, said Adrian had grown to hurricane force, with maximum sustained winds of about 140 kmh. It was moving toward the northeast at about 15 khm.

El Salvador has no Atlantic coast, though it suffered when Hurricane Mitch poured through after swamping Honduras in 1998. Mitch, which killed at least 9,000 people in Central America, was downgraded to a tropical storm before reaching El Salvador.

If Adrian maintains hurricane force, it would be the first time on record that a Pacific hurricane had hit the country, said Antonio Arenas, director of El Salvador's National Service of Territorial Studies.

Most Pacific storms spawned off the Central American coast head toward the northwest, roughly parallel to the coastline, then edge out to sea or veer inland farther north, in Mexico.
The first hurricane of the season got closer to the Pacific coast of El Salvador making it's way west, forcing the evacuation of thousands facing heavy rain and strong winds. Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua is expected to also be affected.

El Salvador's president, Elías Antonio Saca, said his country is prepared for the emergency.

The hurricane also affected several TACA airline flights, especially those that has stops through El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. TACA is based in El Salvador.

The hurricane is expected to affect Costa Rica's northwest province of Guanacaste with heavy rain and strong winds for the next several days. The storm is too far north to directly affect Costa Rica.

The Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE) in Costa Rica has already made preparation for the heavy rainfall that is expected, that will also affect the coastal areas of Puntarenas and the Central Valley (San José).

San José woke up this morning clouded after a heavy rainfall during the night. The Instituto Meteorólógico Nacional (IMN) - the weatherman - forecasts for the Central Valley much of the same for the next couple of days.