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Norbert dissipated into a tropical depression over the northern mountains of mainland Mexico on Sunday, after ripping off roofs and forcing thousands to seek shelter in Baja California.

The storm's remnants are expected to reach New Mexico and waterlogged western Texas Sunday afternoon. State and local officials in Texas plan to activate an emergency operations center Monday in Presidio, where an earthen levee is struggling to hold back the swollen Rio Grande.

Norbert hit mainland Mexico's Sonora coast early Sunday as a Category 1 hurricane with winds near 140 kilometres an hour after crossing the Baja California peninsula on Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Sonora Civil Protection director Willebado Alatriste said authorities were still evaluating the damages, but they did not appear to be widespread.

Baja residents fled to shelters in school buses and army trucks as floodwaters rose in their homes on Saturday. Winds uprooted palm trees and the water rose knee-high in some streets of the town of Puerto San Carlos.

“We left our house because we were scared. Our house is pretty poor and the water was already coming in,” said Maria Espinosa, 54, who arrived at a high school with her daughter and two grandchildren. They joined about 60 other people sitting on foam mattresses and blankets.

Streets turned into rushing, knee-deep rivers in Ciudad Constitucion, on the southern peninsula. Furniture, car parts and trash cans floated down the roads that were deserted except for a few police patrols and a soaked dog on high ground.

More than 2,000 people were in the city's shelters, many of them from coastal villages where nearly all homes had lost their roofs, said Miguel Arevalos, the local Civil Protection director.

“We came here because our roof is gone, the wind ripped it off,” said Luis Mesa, 39, taking shelter at an elementary school after fleeing his village of Pueblo Nuevo. “They said on the radio it was going to get really ugly.”

The storm weakened rapidly as it moved inland. But the hurricane center warned it could dump up to six inches of rain over northwestern Mexico — possibly producing flash floods or mudslides — and up to two inches over the portions of the U.S. southern high plains.

Norbert barreled through Baja California as a Category 2 hurricane Saturday, uprooting trees and causing widespread flooding. Thousands of residents fled to shelters in school buses and army trucks as floodwaters rose in their homes.

Off the southwest coast of Mexico, Tropical Storm Odile also weakened into a depression. The storm had flooded about 200 homes in the Acapulco area.