Floods, landslides kill more than 100 in Mexico

More than 100 people have been killed and scores are missing in landslides and flooding caused by heavy rain in Mexico, a senior government official said late Friday.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong delivered the grim news from the resort town of Acapulco, in one of the worst affected regions, with President Enrique Pena Nieto by his side.

The death toll stood at 101, with 68 people missing following a massive mudslide that swallowed half of the village of La Pintada, in Guerrero state, Osorio Chong said.

Mexico was hammered by the one-two punch of tropical storms Ingrid and Manuel, which left a trail of destruction that damaged tens of thousands of homes, flooded cities and washed out roads.

After regenerating into a hurricane and hitting the northwestern state of Sinaloa late Thursday, affecting 100,000 people and killing three, Manuel finally dissipated over the mountains.

The state of Guerrero was the hardest hit, with at least 65 deaths and its Pacific resort of Acapulco left isolated after the two roads to Mexico City were covered in landslides on Sunday.

Osorio Chong also said that authorities are searching for a police helicopter that had been evacuating people from La Pintada when it disappeared Thursday. Only crewmembers were apparently missing.

Rescuers have abandoned the search by air because of heavy fog, but have continued to search by land, Osorio Chong said.

"We are really worried," the minister earlier told Radio Formula. "They risked their lives all the time, because it was important to evacuate people."

'Thank God we're leaving'

Thousands of tourists trapped in flood-stricken Acapulco for almost a week packed into cars and buses on Friday after authorities reopened the road link to Mexico City following the storms.

Traffic piled up as police allowed cars to leave in groups of 50 to avoid huge backups on the "Sun Highway."

The highway department warned travelers that the trip north, which usually takes around four hours, would last nine to 10 hours, with only a single lane open in some stretches and a diversion to another road.

"Thank God we're leaving, even if there is traffic," said Imelda Cuellar Ramirez, a Mexican holidaymaker who was driving out with eight relatives.

More than 40,000 tourists, mostly Mexicans seeking sun during a three-day holiday weekend, were left stranded when the storms struck five days ago.

Half the city was flooded, while rising waters brought out crocodiles. Looters ransacked stores.

Around 24,000 tourists left in airlifts organized by the military and commercial carriers, but tempers flared as they stood in long lines to get one of the precious seats.

Thousands of frustrated tourists sheltered at the convention center blocked an avenue for half an hour late Thursday in protest against the slow pace of the airlift.

Waiting to board a bus, Alejandro Tubias, a Mexico City resident, said it was high time to leave after his wife contracted a stomach bug that they blamed on the lack of drinking water.

"We are more than happy. We are in a hurry to go because my wife is sick and because we don't have any money to pay the hotel room," he said.

More than 4,000 tourists left on 105 buses on Friday, officials said.

Many dead

While tourists drove out of Acapulco, hundreds of troops and civil protection workers dug with shovels and pickaxes in La Pintada, the coffee-growing village west of Acapulco swamped by a massive mudslide.

Officially, 68 people are missing in the village and two people were killed -- their bodies were pulled out of the debris -- but villagers fear that scores have perished.

"I think there's a lot of dead. A lot of my relatives died, they're buried and we can't do anything," said farmer Diego Zeron.

The mud collapsed on the village of 400 people during independence day celebrations last Monday, swallowing homes, a school and church before crashing into the river.

The soldiers and civil protection workers, many wearing surgical masks, removed pieces of broken homes and chopped up fallen trees with machetes.

Helicopters evacuated more than 330 villagers to Acapulco, but a few families decided to stay back, waiting for news on the missing.

source: interaksyon.com

Death toll nears 100 as new hurricane hits northwest Mexico

ATOYAC DE ALVAREZ, Mexico - Deaths from floods and landslides battering Mexico neared 100 on Thursday as a fresh hurricane hit the northwest and rescuers faced a risky mission in a village buried in mud.

Hurricane Manuel, the same weather system that pummeled the Pacific coast earlier this week, made landfall on the state of Sinaloa, prompting the evacuation of a small fishing town before weakening back to tropical storm force.

Luis Felipe Puente, the national civil protection coordinator, said the death toll rose to 97 from 81, with 65 of them registered in the southwestern state of Guerrero.

Guerrero was the hardest-hit state from the dual onslaught of Manuel and sister storm Ingrid on the east coast this week, which drenched most of the country, damaging bridges, roads and tens of thousands of homes.

The disaster left the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco cut off from the world, marooning tourists and residents, while a massive mudslide swamped a mountain hamlet of 400 people west of the city.

Ediberto Tabarez, the mayor of Atoyac de Alvarez, a municipality that oversees La Pintada, told AFP that at least 15 bodies have been found after more than 20 homes were crushed.

The threat of a new landslide in the coffee-growing village of La Pintada delayed a mission to seek 58 missing people.

But the federal government said it had yet to confirm any deaths and that so far survivors testified that they had removed five bodies from the site.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said rescue teams were unable to start the search because water was gushing from the hill, threatening to send more rock and mud over the village.

Police helicopters had rescued 334 women, children and senior citizens on Wednesday and were supposed to return on Thursday to pick up 45 men and a few officers who were left behind overnight.

"These 45 people are in a dangerous situation," Osorio Chong told MVS radio, adding that homes are barely visible. "The rest of the hill could fall."

The mobile phones of AFP journalists heading to the village had no reception. An aerial video showed a river of mud that had slid down a hill, covering a huge chunk of the village.

From Atoyac, it normally takes two hours by car in winding mountain roads to reach La Pintada, but the road may be damaged by the storms, which could make the trek much lengthier.

‘Ugly noise, worse than a bomb’

Survivors of the disaster who were evacuated to Acapulco recalled hearing a rumble before the earth came crashing down on houses, the church and the school as people were having independence day lunch last Monday.

"It was an ugly noise, worse than a bomb," said Ana Clara Catalan, 17, who was preparing corn tortillas when the earth collapsed.

News of the disaster only emerged two days later after a survivor was able to radio someone in a neighboring village.

"More than half of La Pintada was demolished, few homes were left," said Maria del Carmen Catalan, a 27-year-old mother of three.

The storms that swept across the nation have damaged 35,000 homes and forced the evacuation of 50,000 people, officials said.

More than half of Acapulco was flooded, stranding 40,000 tourists who sought airlifts while looters ransacked stores.

The civilian airport's terminal was flooded in knee-high dark water, but commercial carriers Aeromexico and Interjet have flown special flights since Tuesday.

Osorio Chong said almost 12,000 tourists had been flown to Mexico City in special military and commercial flights while authorities hoped to re-open the road out of Acapulco on Friday.

A human rights group accused the authorities of neglecting mountain communities.

The minister said "we do care about the lives of people in the mountains" but "we can't enter some communities by air or land."

As the cost of the flooding continued to mount, the finance ministry said it had around 12 billion pesos ($925.60 million) available in emergency funding.

While all but two of Mexico's ports remained open to large ships, including its three main oil export hubs along the Gulf, nearly 40 ports along both the Gulf and Pacific coasts were closed on Thursday morning to smaller boats, the transport ministry said.

State oil monopoly Pemex said it had dispatched technicians to fix a ruptured 12-inch oil pipeline between the Gulf port of Madero inland to Cadereyta, which connects two refineries.

The pipeline was damaged when the Pablillo River burst its banks due to heavy rains.

While Manuel churned in the west, a new tropical cyclone threatened to form in the east and cause more misery. (With additional Reuters reports from Miguel Gutierrez, Gabriel Stargardter and David Alire Garcia)

source: interaksyon.com