Mexican death toll hits 80, 58 missing in landslide

Country still reeling from Manuel’s first landfall and Hurricane Ingrid earlier

ACAPULCO, MEXICO — The toll from devastating twin storms climbed to 80 on Wednesday as isolated areas reported deaths and damage to the outside world. Mexican officials said another 58 people were missing in a massive landslide in the mountains north of Acapulco.

The storm that devastated the Pacific resort over the weekend regained strength Wednesday and became Hurricane Manuel, taking a route that could see it make landfall on Mexico’s northwestern coast overnight. It would be a third blow to a country still reeling from the one-two punch of Manuel’s first landfall and Hurricane Ingrid on Mexico’s eastern coast.

Sinaloa state civil protection authorities said some areas were already flooding in the towns of Escuinapa, El Rosario and Mazatlan. At least 60 families were evacu- ated from the fishing village of Yameto, in the Sinaloan town of Navolato, authorities said. The affected area is mainly small fishing villages.

Ricardo de la Cruz, a spokesman for the federal Department of Civil Protection, said the death toll had risen to 80 from 60 earlier in the day, although he did not provide details of the reports that drove it up.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Wednesday evening that Manuel’s eyewall was now nearing the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

Forecasters said the deadly storm had top sustained winds of 75 mph (115 km/h) and was centred about 20 miles (30 kilometres) southeast of the western Mexican community of Altata.

The centre also says Manuel is moving north at 5 mph (7 km/h) and a hurricane warning is in effect from La Cruz to Topolobampo in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

With a tropical disturbance over the Yucatan Peninsula headed toward Mexico’s Gulf coast, the country could face another double hit as it struggles to restore services and evacuate those stranded by Manuel and Ingrid, which hit the Gulf coast.

Mexico’s federal Civil Protection co-ordinator, Luis Felipe Puente, said 35,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

EDUARDO VERDUGO/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS People look for valuables in a store’s flooded parking lot in Punta Diamante, south of Acapulco, after a tropical storm hit the area with full force. At least 80 people have died.