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A rain-swollen river overflowed its banks and flooded a town in southern Mexico, leaving rescuers on Thursday to search for dozens of missing people. Mexico Destination Guide >
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Mexican troops joined police and civil defense workers in the rescue effort in Aguililla, roughly 410 kilometers (245 miles) southwest of Mexico City.
Local news media reported at least one person had died. Mary Cortez of the Michoacan state civil defense agency said no confirmed deaths had been reported to the state headquarters, but she said people were missing and 200 houses were damaged.
About 10,000 people live in the town of Aguililla, the county seat of an area that has strong family ties, due to emigration, to Redwood City, California.
The flooding came a day after President Vicente Fox toured parts of the Gulf coast that had been hit by Tropical Storm Jose. An emergency was declared for 56 municipalities in Veracruz state, allowing special federal aid.
Floods forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes and at least five deaths had been reported in Veracruz state.
Source: cnn.com
Mexico, Central America floods, mudslides kill 162
Raging brown floodwater and banks of mud covered chunks of Central America and southern Mexico on Thursday after days of torrential rain and mudslides killed at least 162 across the region.
Rescue workers battled to get to remote villages, where hillsides have collapsed under the downpour, and thousands of evacuees from urban shantytowns hunkered down in emergency shelters as rain continued to pound the region.
The death toll soared on Wednesday as rivers swollen by rain from Hurricane Stan burst their banks in southern Mexico, and emergency teams found dozens of bodies buried under banks
Hurricane Stan leaves 231 dead in Central America, Mexico
Rescue workers in Guatemala said they pulled at least 40 bodies from a massive mudslide and found 20 more dead in a swollen river, raising to at least 231 the number of people killed from five days of pounding rains after Hurricane Stan hit Central America and Mexico.
Officials expected the death to toll to climb as they searched for more than 150 others who were missing following the landslide in Solola, a town close to Lake Atitlan, 100 kilometres west of the capital, Guatemala City.
Along the country's Pacific coast, the Nahualate
Rains and flooding kill some 30 people in Mexico
Heavy rains and flooding from a series of storms have killed around 30 people in Mexico and left thousands homeless in coastal areas in the past week, with more rain forecast for the weekend.
Rains from Tropical Storm Jose, the 10th of the season, drenched Mexico's Gulf coast early in the week, forcing some 25,000 people from their homes in Veracruz state.
Seven people were killed in a landslide in a mountainous region of the state, and four died as rivers overflowed their banks in lower-lying areas, officials said on Thursday.
On the Pacific
Hurricane Stan kills 162 in Mexico, Central America
Huge mudslides, flooding and torrential rains from Hurricane Stan have killed at least 162 people in Central America and southern Mexico, rescue workers said on Wednesday.
Relentless rain pounded mountain villages and urban shanty towns across the impoverished region, and hillsides collapsed under four days of downpours.
The death toll more than doubled on Wednesday when rivers burst their banks in southern Mexico, and emergency teams found dozens more victims buried under banks of mud in remote Guatemalan towns.
By the evening, the death toll in Guatemala stood at 79 people, but the government said that
Flooding kills more than 160 in southern Mexico, Central America
Rescue workers were searching for victims of a mudslide near a volcano-ringed lake popular with tourists in Guatemala, as the death toll from flooding sparked by heavy rains climbed to 79 across this country and 62 in neighboring El Salvador.
Downpours have battered much of Central America and southern Mexico since the weekend, and it was still raining in most areas, causing rivers to overflow and carry off homes and people and huge chunks of land to give way, burying everything in their path.
Forecasters at the U.S. Hurricane Center said
News of extensive flooding and mudslides, accompanied by lack of communication, raises fears that the death toll in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and southern Mexico could be a great deal higher than the 450 reported following Hurricane Stan"s havoc last weekend.
In Guatemala, the president has asked Congress to declare a state of emergency because entire villages have been destroyed by the mudslides and flash floods, and many people are still missing.
El Salvador likewise fears that more people than the reported 64 have died, because the 54,000 evacuated throughout the country will have difficulty returning to their
Tropical storm Jose, the 10th of the season, dumped heavy rain on eastern Mexico on Tuesday but was downgraded to a depression as it moved over the central highlands.
Mexico withdrew storm warnings along its Gulf Coast as Jose weakened after hitting the coast of Veracruz state, some distance from its main oil ports.
Emergency services feared Jose could trigger landslides in the mountains and cause lowland flooding.
"Heavy rain will increase the chance of mudslides in mountain areas, raise river levels and some floods in low-altitude zones of Veracruz and Puebla," Mexico's civil protection agency said in a statement.
The
Six dead as Wilma pounds Mexico
At least six people have died as Hurricane Wilma continues to pound the coast of Mexico.
The storm has flooded the resort of Cancun, cutting off roads, flattening homes and leaving much of the area without electricity.
Tens of thousands of people are now sheltering in overcrowded schools and gymnasiums in the area.
Weather forecasters say Wilma has weakened, but might get stronger again as it slowly heads towards Florida.
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On Saturday officials on the Florida Keys ordered 80,000 people to evacuate the islands before the storm
Irish girl missing in Gulf of Mexico
A search operation is continuing off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula for an Irish teenager who fell overboard from a cruise ship in the early hours of yesterday morning.
15-year-old Lynsey O'Brien from Dublin, a pupil of the Loreto High School, Beaufort, in Dublin, was on a family holiday in the Caribbean aboard the vessel Costa Magica.
It is understood Ms O'Brien was on the top deck of the ship with her 11-year-old sister, Imelda, when she fell overboard. Her sister then alerted her parents and a search was initiated.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that
Irish girl missing in Gulf of Mexico
A search operation is continuing off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula for an Irish teenager who fell overboard from a cruise ship in the early hours of yesterday morning.
15-year-old Lynsey O'Brien from Dublin, a pupil of the Loreto High School, Beaufort, in Dublin, was on a family holiday in the Caribbean aboard the vessel Costa Magica.
It is understood Ms O'Brien was on the top deck of the ship with her 11-year-old sister, Imelda, when she fell overboard. Her sister then alerted her parents and a search was initiated.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed
