(Reuters) – Hurricane Katia churned almost 200 miles (322 km) off the Gulf coast of Mexico on Wednesday evening before an expected turn towards land that could dump heavy rain on eastern states in the coming days, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Katia, a Category 1 hurricane, was 195 miles (314 km) east of the port of Tampico, blowing maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (121 km per hour), the Miami-based NHC said.

Category 1 is the weakest hurricane designation by the NHC. Category 5 is the strongest.

There are now three hurricanes in the Atlantic. Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century and a Category 5, howled past Puerto Rico on Wednesday and is on a collision course with Florida.

Hurricane Jose in the open Atlantic, some 1,000 miles (1,610 km) east of the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles islands, could become a Category 3 and eventually threaten the U.S. mainland.

Earlier in the day, Katia was slightly nearer to the Mexican coast, and at about 7 p.m. CDT (0000 GMT) was moving to the southeast at around 3 mph (5 kph), the center said.

Describing Katia as a “small tropical cyclone,” the NHC said the storm would likely start drifting towards the southwest on Thursday, taking it towards the Mexican coast.

Some additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and the NHC’s projections showed the hurricane hitting the oil-rich state of Veracruz around the end of the week.

State oil and gas company Pemex [PEMX.UL] has installations in and around the coast of Veracruz, but so far the firm has not reported any interruptions to its operations.

The storm is expected to produce total rainfall of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 cm) over northern Veracruz, and 2 to 5 inches over southern Tamaulipas state, northeastern parts of the state of Puebla, and southern Veracruz through Saturday morning.

The rains may cause flash floods and mudslides, especially in mountainous areas, the NHC said.

Five days of rain are forecast for most of Mexico’s territory due to the effects of storms in the region including Katia, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Jose, said Luis Felipe Puente, the head of Mexico’s national emergency services.

The flurry of storm activity comes after Hurricane Harvey claimed about 60 lives and caused property damage estimated as high as $180 billion after pummeling the coasts of Texas and Louisiana with torrential rain and severe flooding.