At least eight people were killed in central Mexico by landslides and accidents blamed on the remnants of Hurricane Dean, now a weakening tropical depression that dumped heavy rains, causing devastating damage.
In the state of Puebla, a family of four, including two children, died when a mudslide hit a highway overpass Thursday and crushed their car, state civil-protection authorities said. Wednesday, a government official died in a car wreck while checking for damage during the storm, and a 76-year-old man was killed when part of his house fell on him.
In Hidalgo, rain from Dean caused at least 35 landslides, swelled rivers and damaged more than 2,000 homes. In Veracruz, where Dean came ashore in Mexico for a second time yesterday, 16,000 homes were damaged, and 15,323 families were affected.
“I’m worried about the situation in Hidalgo, where there have been reports of rising river levels,” President Felipe Calderon said during a tour of Veracruz.
Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico’s state-oil monopoly, plans to resume production at its main oil platforms in the Gulf tomorrow after evacuating about 19,000 workers by Aug. 20 ahead of Dean’s arrival.
Dean slammed into Mexico for the second time in as many days Wednesday with top sustained winds of 160 km/h. Its centre hit the tourism and fishing town of Tecolutla.
The storm toll in Mexico brought the total number of fatalities associated with Dean to 28, most in the Caribbean. The hurricane had reached its full strength, Category 5, when it struck a relatively isolated stretch of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday. So far no deaths have been reported there, although property damage was extensive.
The mountain ranges near Mexico’s coast are dotted with villages connected by precarious roads and susceptible to disaster. A rainstorm in 1999 caused floods that killed at least 350 people.