Hurricane Julia bears down on Central America, could bring heavy rain, flooding

Hurricane Julia closed in on Nicaragua's central Caribbean coast late Saturday after lashing Colombia's San Andres island in a near pass soon after strengthening from a tropical storm in the afternoon. It could also bring heavy rainfall to Southern Mexico early next week, forecasters said.  Julia was upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurricane Saturday night, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported. A storm is defined as a hurricane when its maximum sustained winds reach 74 mph, according to the National Weather Service.    As of late Saturday night, the storm was centered about 65 miles west of Columbia's San Andres Island, and 80 miles northeast of Bluefields, Nicaragua. It was moving west at 16 mph. There were no early reports on what effects the storm had in San Andres. The NCH said in an advisory that Julia could bring "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides from heavy rains" to several Central American countries and Southern Mexi