Veracruz, Mexico ? Hurricane Stan slammed into Mexico’s Gulf coast Tuesday, forcing authorities to close one of the nation’s busiest ports and spawning related storms across the region that left at least 66 people dead, most from landslides in El Salvador.

Stan, which whipped up maximum sustained winds of 80 mph before weakening to a tropical storm, came ashore along a sparsely populated stretch of coastline south of Veracruz, a major port 185 miles east of Mexico City.

The storm’s outer bands swiped the city, knocking down trees and flooding low-lying neighborhoods, authorities said. State officials said four people were injured, including a child, but gave no details.

All three of Mexico’s Gulf coast crude-oil loading ports were closed Tuesday as a precaution, authorities said, but the shutdowns were not expected to affect oil prices.

Meteorologists said Stan was driving separate storms across Central America and southern Mexico, provoking flooding and landslides. Some 49 people had been killed during two days of flooding in El Salvador, Interior Secretary Rene Figueroa said Tuesday night. Nine people died in Nicaragua, including six people believed to be Ecuadorean migrants killed when their boat ran ashore.

Four deaths were reported in Honduras and three in Guatemala. In Costa Rica, a woman was killed when her home was buried by a landslide early Tuesday.

Luis Gonzalez looks out from a shelter Tuesday in Cosamaloapan, Veracruz, Mexico. Hurricane Stan, which whipped up maximum sustained winds of 80 mph before weakening to a tropical storm, came ashore along a sparsely populated stretch of coastline south of Veracruz, a major port 185 miles east of Mexico City.

In Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, a river overflowed its banks and roared through Tapachula.

Chiapas Gov. Pablo Salazar said four people were missing and could have been swept away.

“Sadly, we know it’s going to keep raining,” Salazar said.

Rain was falling Tuesday in much of Central America, forcing thousands from their homes.

In the southern state of Oaxaca, also affected by heavy rains and wind, officials opened 950 shelters and were keeping an eye on 80 communities considered to be vulnerable.

Some 38,000 people abandoned their homes statewide and stayed in some of the 2,000 shelters set up all along the coastline.