Central American countries braced Thursday for the onslaught of Hurricane Adrian, which was upgraded to full hurricane status over the Pacific in mid afternoon and was expected to deliver a round of devastating floods to the region, said the dpa. The governments of Guatemala and El Salvador upgraded an earlier tropical storm warning to hurricane level for the Pacific coast of Guatemala from "Sipicate eastward to the El Salvador-Honduras border", the Miami Hurricane Center said. The center said the "biggest threat" was torrential rainfall "which will likely produce flash flooding and potentially devastating mud slides over the mountainous terrain of Central America". Other countries including Nicaragua were bracing for the onslaught. At 1800 GMT, Adrian's center was about 195 kilometres southwest of San Salvador, and moving at 15 kilometres an hour. Winds were blowing at 120 kilometres per hour. Salvadoran President Antonio Saca's government has given public workers holidays until Sunday, and school classes and court trials were also suspended. --More 2340 Local Time 2040 GMT
