Mudslides kill 40 in Mexico after Tropical Storm Earl
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mudslides triggered by intense rainfall in eastern Mexico killed 40 people over the weekend as saturated hillsides collapsed onto modest homes following the now-dissipated Tropical Storm Earl.
Mexican television showed entire hillsides buried by massive mudslides, downed trees and buildings about to collapse under buckling walls and roofs.
A death toll of 38 announced earlier by emergency services rose when mudslides covered hillside communities. Rafael Morena Valle, governor of Puebla State, said canine units were searching for those still missing, but the number of unaccounted residents was unclear. The vast majority of deaths occurred in Puebla and neighboring Veracruz.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on the Pacific coast braced for Tropical Storm Javier, another major storm set to strike as early as Monday.
Javier generated maximum sustained winds of 80 kilometers per hour Sunday night and was forecast to become a hurricane late Monday, the US National Hurricane Center said in a statement.
The center of the storm was expected to strike the southern tip of Baja, home to the Los Cabos beach resort, by Monday night.
At least 25 deaths were confirmed Sunday near Huauchinango, a town in the rugged Sierra Norte de Puebla mountains and site of the worst destruction so far.
In Veracruz, 11 died in mudslides after Earl crossed the Yucatan peninsula and flooding the Gulf coast.
“We continue to monitor rivers that are above critical levels,” Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte said in a Twitter post on Sunday.
Before striking Mexico, Earl flooded parts of the coast and battered Belize last Thursday as it smashed car windows and punched holes in roofs of Belize City’s wooden houses.