A road next to a supermarket is flooded after Hurricane Grace hits the coast.
Mexico:
Hurricane Grace ravaged Mexico on Saturday, causing severe flooding and mudslides that killed at least eight people after it became one of the strongest storms in years to hit the country’s Gulf coast.
Grace was blowing maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour (201 kph), a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson five-stage scale, when it slammed into the coast near the seaside town of Tecolutla in Veracruz state in the early morning.
The state government said eight people were killed, including six from one family. All but one of the victims died in Xalapa, the state capital, including a young girl who was killed by a mudslide that hit her home, the government said.
An adult was killed by a collapsed roof in the city of Poza Rica, further north in the state, Veracruz governor Cuitlahuac Garcia told a news conference.
“The state of emergency has not ended,” he added.
Local television showed severe flooding in Xalapa, with coffins from a local company drifting through a swampy street. The nearby Actopan River has overflowed and a local highway has been closed, state authorities said.
Ericka Herrera, a housewife in Tecolutla, was in tears as she described the destruction.
“Not of this magnitude that ruins everything,” she said. “It’s really sad. It’s going really bad.”
Grace smashed windows, broke trees, power lines and telegraph poles, and left debris in Tecolutla, although there were no human casualties, local authorities said.
Images of Veracruz on social media showed damage to buildings and flooded cars.
Garcia said several rivers in Veracruz would flood and urged locals to take cover.
Television images also showed flooding in Ciudad Madero in the southern reaches of Tamaulipas state near the border with Veracruz. The Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Francisco Madero refinery is located in Ciudad Madero.
Mexico City International Airport said some flights have been canceled due to the hurricane. The national electricity company Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) reported that 565,000 electricity users were affected by power outages.
Grace quickly weakened as it moved into the mountainous interior, and by 4 p.m. CDT (2100 GMT) it dissipated in central Mexico, with top winds reaching 25 mph (35 kph). The center was about 65 miles (105 km) west-northwest of Mexico City, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Before Grace landed, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged people in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, and Hidalgo to move to higher elevations or shelters.
Many seem to have heeded the call.
The NHC predicted Grace would dump 6 to 12 inches (15-30 cm) of rain over eastern and central Mexico through Sunday and up to 18 inches (45 cm) in some areas. The heavy rainfall is likely to lead to flooding in areas and urban flooding, it said.
Veracruz and its waters are home to several oil installations, including the Port of Pemex in Coatzacoalcos and the Lazaro Cardenas Refinery in Minatitlan to the south. Grace landed well in the north of these towns.
Earlier this week, Grace slammed into Mexico’s Caribbean coast, cutting down trees and causing power outages for nearly 700,000 people, but with no loss of life, authorities said.
It also engulfed Jamaica and Haiti, still reeling from a 7.2 magnitude earthquake with torrential rain.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
