Tropical Storm Pilar lashed Central America on Tuesday with heavy rains that have been blamed for two deaths in El Salvador as the storm meanders off the Pacific coast. The 24-year-old man and a 57-year-old woman were swept away by swollen streams in the province of La Union. The US National Hurricane Centre said early Tuesday that Pilar was located about 260 km south of San Salvador with winds of 85 kmph and was moving east-northeast at 6 kmph.

The storm was expected to maintain that general track Tuesday, stall for a day or more just off the coast and then abruptly turn around and head back out to sea  on Thursday without making landfall, the centre said. The storm was forecast to dump between 2-24 cm of rain from El Salvador to Costa Rica with as much as 38 cm in some areas.