HURRICANE AGATHA KILLS 11, LEAVES 20 MISSING IN SOUTH MEXICO

SAN ISIDRO DEL PALMAR: Hurricane Agatha caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 11 people and left 20 missing, the governor of the southern state of Oaxaca said on Tuesday.

Gov Alejando Murat said rivers overflowed their banks and swept away people in homes, while other victims were buried under mud and rocks.

“There were fundamentally two reasons” for the deaths, Murat told local media. “There were rivers that overflowed, and on the other hand, and the most serious part, were landslides.”

Murat said the deaths appeared to be concentrated in a number of small towns in the mountains, just inland from the coast. But he said there were also reports of three children missing near the resort of Huatulco.

Agatha made history as the strongest hurricane ever recorded to come ashore in May during the eastern Pacific hurricane season. It made landfall on Monday afternoon on a sparsely populated stretch of small beach towns and fishing villages in Oaxaca.

It was a strong Category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of nearly 169 kmph, but it quickly lost power moving inland over the mountainous interior. Remnants of Agatha were moving northeast on Tuesday into Veracruz state.

Murat said power had been restored to some communities near the coast, but that some bridges had been washed out and mudslides blocked a number of highways. San Isidro del Palmar, only a couple miles inland from the coast, was swamped by the Tonameca river that flows through town.

Agatha formed on Sunday and quickly gained power. It was the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in May in the eastern Pacific, said Jeff Masters, meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections.