By Mina Kawai and William Freebairn

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Norbert weakened to a tropical depression after killing three in Mexico and forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes yesterday.

Norbert, downgraded from a Category 2 hurricane, was about 110 kilometers (68 miles) west-southwest of Chihuahua, Mexico, at 5 a.m. local time, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said today on its Web site. The center of the storm appeared to be ``rapidly dissipating,'' the Center said in an advisory issued at 8 a.m. local time.

Three people were drowned in a swollen waterway in the town of Alamos in Sonora state, El Universal newspaper reported, citing state police.

The storm left thousands without power, ripped the roofs from homes and swept away a man trying to cross a small river as it crossed Mexico's Baja California peninsula yesterday, the newspaper Reforma reported on its Web site today, citing local officials.

Norbert crossed the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California, and made landfall again late yesterday in Sonora state. In Sinaloa, more than 6,000 people were evacuated in advance of the storm's arrival, Reforma reported.

The Saffir-Simpson scale ranks hurricane intensity in five categories based on sustained wind speeds. A Category 2 storm has winds of 95 to 110 miles per hour (153 to 177 kilometers per hour).

Some Mexican ports reopened today after the hurricane passed. The ports of La Paz and Cabo San Lucas in Baja California South state, as well as Guaymas and San Carlos in Sonora and Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan, were open as of 5 p.m. New York time, according to a statement on the country's port and merchant marine authority Web site. The port of Topolobampo in Sinaloa remained closed.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mina Kawai in New York at minkawai@bloomberg.net; William Freebairn in Mexico City at wfreebairn@bloomberg.netLast Updated: October 12, 2008 21:04 EDT

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