Hurricane Erick made landfall on Mexico’s southern coast as a Category 3 storm early Thursday after prompting flash floods, school closings and evacuations in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero.

The hurricane had been a Category 4 storm as it bore down from the eastern Pacific toward Mexico, but weakened slightly as it reached the coast around 6 a.m. local time, in western Oaxaca, with winds around 125 mph.

The storm made landfall just east of the town of Punta Maldonado, and was moving northwest and inland as a Category 3 storm Thursday morning. Later, it had weakened to a Category 1 storm. Landslides closed two highways, damaged homes and injured at least one man, according to emergency officials.

About 200 people had been forced by rising waters to go to shelters in Santiago Pinotepa Nacional, authorities said Thursday morning, and power and internet outages were reported in several cities in Oaxaca. Officials said its destructive winds and heavy rain threatened to unleash a dangerous storm surge.

Mexico’s Civil Protection authorities issued a red alert late Wednesday, indicating the highest level of danger for severe weather, in parts of Oaxaca and the neighboring state of Guerrero.

In its latest advisory, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Erick was expected to bring 6 to 8 inches of rain in most places, and possibly up to 16 inches in some areas, mainly across Oaxaca and Guerrero. They warned that serious flooding was expected as well as dangerous mudslides, especially in mountainous or hilly areas.

Extremely strong and damaging winds were also a hazard, and strong waves and swells were expected to affect the southern Mexican coast through the day.

“If you are in low-lying areas, near rivers, near waterways, it is best for you to go to shelters, to the shelters that have already been set up for this situation,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a news conference Wednesday morning. “Anyone who has a boat should not go out.”

Erick was likely to weaken over the mountains of Mexico as it made its way inland and dissipate early today, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

The center issued a hurricane warning along a roughly 300-mile stretch of coastline from Puerto Ángel in Oaxaca west to Acapulco, a resort city in Guerrero.

More than 2,000 temporary shelters were set up across Guerrero, Oaxaca and the nearby state of Chiapas, the Mexican government said in a statement as the storm approached. Sheinbaum told people in Erick’s path to stay indoors and urged those living near low-lying areas, rivers and waterways to move to emergency shelters.