PUERTO ESCONDIDO, Mexico (AFP, REUTERS) - The toll from Hurricane Agatha climbed to at least ten dead and around 20 missing in southern Mexico, where heavy rains triggered landslides and flooding, local officials said on Tuesday (May 31).
“Right now we’re at around 20 people missing, most of them are in the upper mountains,” Oaxaca state governor Alejandro Murat told Radio Formula, adding that “ten who lost their lives were unfortunately preliminarily reported by local authorities.”
Aldis Lopez, 21 and Mario Cruz, 18 were the storm’s first confirmed victims in the community of Santa Catarina Xanaguia in the hardest hit state of Oaxaca.
“They were buried between rocks and mud,” Mr Axel Martinez, a spokesperson for the Oaxaca’s civil protection agency, told Reuters.
The civil protection agency confirmed a third person had died in the town of San Mateo Pinas, a woman who got caught in a landslide.
Eight others were reported missing, according to the state’s public security secretary.
Mexican officials worked into Tuesday to clear highways blocked by mudslides along Mexico's southern coast after record-breaking storm Agatha battered the region with torrential rains and strong winds.
Agatha made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on Monday afternoon, touching down with 169 km per hour winds near the beach town of Puerto Angel on the Pacific coast before losing strength as it moved inland.
By early Tuesday, Agatha had weakened to a tropical depression and is expected to dissipate by afternoon, according to the United States National Hurricane Centre (NHC), which warned of life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in Oaxaca state.
In a news conference, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would meet with authorities and security advisors to monitor the situation.
Waves of between one and three meters were expected to hit the coasts of Oaxaca and Chiapas during the day, Mexico’s National Water Commission CONAGUA said on Twitter.
Rain caused mud and rocks to slide into two highways in Oaxaca, blocking access to at least one area of the state, local authorities said.
Mexico's transportation ministry was working to clear the roads into the night on Monday.
Some towns in Oaxaca lost power, and one transformer exploded, officials said. Telephone lines were knocked out on Monday, forcing authorities to communicate by radio.
Agatha, the strongest hurricane on record to reach land on Mexico's Pacific coast during the month of May, is expected to drop a total of 25-41 cm of rain on Oaxaca, with heavy downpours in nearby states of Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco and eastern Guerrero, the NHC said.
