Hurricane Lane fizzles out after slamming Mexico

CULIACAN, Mexico, Sep 17 (Reuters) Hurricane Lane fizzled out today after leaving a trail of destruction on Mexico's Pacific coast that killed two people, washed away roads and knocked down flimsy homes.

Lane lost punch after slamming into a low-lying coastal area south of the city of Culiacan on Saturday. The storm slowed to a tropical depression today.

Lashing rains turned small creeks into raging currents, washing away sections of roads and at least one bridge between Culiacan and the tourist city of Mazatlan. Dozens of trucks and their drivers were stranded.

Lane's winds also toppled electricity towers, trees and traffic signs. A handful of locals gathered on one broken bridge near Culiacan on Sunday and stared at a small car which had been swept into a creek by a flash flood.

''It seemed like the world was ending,'' said Jesus Javier Quintero, describing the three-hour pounding from Lane when the hurricane hit with its full force late yesterday.

''The only thing that survived was our little house,'' said Quintero, a 30-year-old laborer who lived with his family in a small house on the Culiacan-Mazatlan highway. His work sheds lay in tatters.

A convoy of 80 vehicles carrying rescue workers and firefighters set off south from Culiacan to try to reach the town of El Dorado, which was cut off because of damaged roads and floods.

Streets were flooded in Culiacan, the capital of the western Sinaloa state on Mexico's Pacific Coast. As the storm petered out on Sunday, some 2,000 people who spent the night in evacuation shelters were sent home.

The storm, still whipping up gusts and dumping isolated rain, was dissipating inland over western Mexico, according the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.

It was about 165 km east of Los Mochis and moving north at about 7 mph (11 kph). Maximum sustained winds had dropped to 30 mph.

One man died in the village of Pueblos Unidos when he was knocked over by fierce winds, police said. Lane earlier killed a 7-year-old boy by triggering a rock fall in Acapulco.

The storm had been expected to move up through the Sea of Cortez and make landfall farther north, but it swung suddenly to the east and crashed into the coastline, flooding streets in Culiacan and knocking out power in parts of Mazatlan.

Tourists and residents at the tip of the Baja California peninsula breathed a sigh of relief as it escaped damage from a hurricane for the second time in two weeks.

Extending south from the US state of California, the peninsula is still reeling from Hurricane John, which killed at least three people when it struck there earlier this month.

REUTERS SAM BST0018