VERACRUZ, Mexico - Hurricane Stan slammed into Mexico's Gulf coast before quickly weakening to a tropical storm Tuesday, forcing authorities to close one of the nation's busiest ports and unleashing rains in Central America and Mexico that have killed at least 59 people.

The storm, which whipped up 80-mph (130-kph) winds, came ashore along a sparsely populated stretch of coastline south of Veracruz, a busy port 185 miles (295 kilometers) east of Mexico City.

The storm's outer bands swiped the city, knocking down trees and flooding low-lying neighborhoods, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

All three of Mexico's Gulf coast crude-oil loading ports were closed Tuesday as a precaution, but the shutdowns hadn't affected the company's production, authorities said.

Shortly after Stan touched land about midday, the storm's winds dropped to about 65 mph (104 km/h), although heavy rains remained a threat, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. It was moving toward the southwest at about 9 mph (15 km/h) and was expected to continue weakening rapidly. Tropical storm winds extended outward up to 105 miles (165 kilometers) from Stan's center.

Forecasters said the storm was driving rain across Central America and southern Mexico, provoking flooding and landslides. At least 41 people were killed in El Salvador, the majority in landslides on Tuesday, and nine people, including six migrants believed to have died in a boat wreck, died in Nicaragua.

The bodies of six foreigners were found Monday on a small Nicaraguan island in the Pacific, Civil Defense official Maj. Porfirio Castrillo said. None was carrying identification, but they were all believed to be Ecuadorean migrants killed when the bad weather caused their boat to run ashore, he said.

Three other people died in the Nicaraguan provinces of Leon, Granada, Matagalpa and Managua, which have reported severe flooding. Authorities also reported damage to some bridges and highways.

Four deaths were reported in Honduras and three in Guatemala. In Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, a river overflowed its banks and roared through the city of Tapachula, carrying some ramshackle homes of wood and metal with it. One man was killed and dozens of people were missing Tuesday, the Televisa television network reported.

In Veracruz, schools canceled classes and officials at a nearby nuclear power plant had readied the facility for the category one hurricane's strong winds and rains.

Thousands of residents abandoned their homes and stayed in some of the 2,000 shelters set up all along the coastline.

At Chachalacas beach, 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Veracruz, restaurant owner Celestino Criollo struggled amid rising winds and intermittent rains to clear equipment from his beach-side, thatched-roof seafood restaurant.

Criollo said the storm's rapid approach had caught many beach dwellers by surprise.

"We knew it would be strong and the tide high, but we didn't think it would come this quick," he said. "They advised us, but they could have done it sooner."

In the neighboring state of Oaxaca, which was also affected by heavy rains and wind, officials opened 950 shelters as a preventive measure and were keeping an eye on 80 communities considered to be vulnerable, as well as the Ostuta River on the isthmus.

The closed crude-oil loading ports - Coatzacoalcos, Dos Bocas and Cayo Arcas - handle most of the 1.8 million barrels a day of crude oil exported by state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.