Yahoo TV

Storm Grace battered Mexico with torrential rain and howling winds early on Saturday after becoming one of the most powerful hurricanes in years to hit the country’s Gulf coast.

The category 3 storm was whipping up maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour when it slammed into Veracruz state on the coast.

The state governor said at least eight people were killed. He urged locals to seek high ground and warned several more rivers - in addition to the River Actopan - would soon flood.

Trees had come crashing down… many buildings were damaged, and the national power utility said over 500,000 customers had been affected by power outages.

Grace weakened quickly, and by mid-morning, became a tropical storm with top winds of 70 mph.

But the rain will persist. The National Hurricane Center said Grace was expected to dump 6 to 12 inches of rain over swaths of eastern and central Mexico this weekend.

Other areas could see up to 18 inches of rain, forecasters said, as they warned of more flooding.