Authorities in central Mexico were on alert last night for possible mudslides and flooding as the remnants of Hurricane Karl pushed inland hours after the storm swept on to the Gulf coast and killed two people.

Karl, which caused widespread property damage as a hurricane in the port city of Veracruz, weakened to a tropical depression on Friday night.

It was dissipating over the mountains early yesterday, but was still expected to produce up to another three inches of rain in some areas, the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said.

A landslide buried a house in the town of Nexticapan, killing a 61-year-old woman and two-year-old girl and injuring two other people, said Aru Becerra, a spokeswoman for civil protection in Puebla, a state bordering the Mexican capital.

Authorities across central Mexico prepared for possible flash floods and mudslides, while Mexico City officials put hospitals on alert and sent workers to evaluate hillside neighbourhoods and flood-risk zones.

Officials in the capital and nearby Cuernavaca put crews on alert and designated schools and other buildings as possible shelters. The Mexican capital was in a state of "blue alert", meaning the risk was considered moderate, city civil protection secretary Elias Moreno said.

The storm had sustained winds of 115mph when it hit land at midday about 10 miles northwest of Veracruz. Its winds were down to 25mph by yesterday morning.

Karl knocked down trees, billboards and power poles in Veracruz, making some streets unusable, said the city's civil protection chief, Isidro Cano Luna. He said there had not been a storm like it since Hurricane Janet in 1955.