Hurricane Roslyn batters Mexico's Pacific coast with damaging winds, major rainfall

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Roslyn, a powerful Category 3 hurricane, made landfall in Mexico's Nayarit state on the Pacific coast Sunday morning, dumping a life-threatening storm surge with damaging winds in its path, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Rosyln, which was downgraded from Category 4 since Saturday, hit land at 5:20 a.m. local time (1120 GMT) near Santa Cruz in northern Nayarit, the NHC said, a coastal state home to popular tourist beaches like Sayulita and Punta Mita.

It was packing maximum sustained winds near 120 mph (195 km), though rapid weakening was expected as it moved farther inland over west-central Mexico throughout the day, the NHC said.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the coast from Playa Perula to Escuinapa and Las Islas Marias. Up to 8 to 10 inches of rainfall was expected in Jalisco, the upper coast of Colima, western Nayarit and southeastern Sinaloa.

A video posted by Mexico's civil protection agency showed trees swaying in strong winds and gusts of rainfall as Roslyn touched down in Nayarit.

Mexican authorities opened emergency shelters along the coastal areas of Nayarit and bordering Jalisco state, and warned people not to trust moments of calm during the storm, but stay sheltered until officials said the danger was over.

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Toby Chopra)