Willa dissipates, but evacuations continue
MAZATLAN, MEXICO — Emergency workers struggled to reach beach towns left incommunicado by a blow from Hurricane Willa, and the storm continued to force evacuations Wednesday due to fear of flooding even as it dissipated over northern Mexico. Thousands of homes were still without power.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or missing people, but the storm’s 120 mph (195 kph) winds damaged a hospital, knocked out power, toppled wood-shack homes and ripped metal roofing off other houses in the Sinaloa state municipality of Escuinapa when it came ashore Tuesday evening.
Nearly 102,000 homes in Sinaloa lost electricity after the storm made landfall, the head of the state electricity company said on Twitter. Service had been restored to about 62 percent of those.
The state civil defense office said the hospital’s ceiling and some other areas were damaged in Escuinapa.
The worst damage was expected to be in the handful of coastal communities that were cut off by road and without communications. Workers were trying to remove toppled power poles and trees blocking the roads.
In the farming neighborhood of Pueblo Nuevo, a half mile (kilometer) from Escuinapa’s center, neighbors cried when describing how the wind swept up their tin roofs and wooden house frames while they sheltered under their heaviest furniture.
Ruben Avila and his wife, Juana, told The Associated Press they were disappointed that government officials had not yet arrived with help, as they sat among their scattered belongings under pouring rain Wednesday. Mattresses and remains of their belongings lay soaked on the ground.