Ernesto kills nine in Mexico Posted: 11 August 2012 0903 hrs

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Ernesto kills nine in Mexico Posted: 11 August 2012 0903 hrs inShare   XALAPA, Mexico: Ernesto killed at least nine people in Mexico, officials said  Friday, with the dissipating storm threatening more heavy rain and possible  flooding. In the southeastern state of Tabasco, a 17-year-old fisherman drowned off  the coast of the town of Centla, according to authorities, and the body of a  second victim was found in the Samaria River. A landslide in the neighboring state of Veracruz left five dead and one  missing on Thursday. "Three people died when a tree fell" amid strong winds and rain in the  municipality of Rio Blanco, Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte told reporters. Another woman was killed in her car when a river swept across a highway,  and lightning fatally struck a 62-year-old man, according to a government  report. In the southwestern state of Oaxaca, authorities said a woman was killed  when heavy rains and landslides caused her car to crash. A child less than  12 years old died in his home after the runoff from a hill caused the building  to collapse. Ernesto, which has petered out, made landfall for a second time near the  Mexican port of Coatzacoalcos on Thursday, dumping heavy rain and causing  flooding in the Gulf coast region. The high mountains of southern Mexico have disrupted the storm,  whose remnants are expected to move off Mexico into the eastern  Pacific over the weekend, when it could become a tropical cyclone,  according to the US-based National Hurricane Center. It first became a hurricane on Tuesday, before being downgraded to  a tropical storm and heading back out to sea. As the storm moves inland, some areas could still see up to 15 inches  (38 centimeters) of rain before skies clear, the NHC said, adding that  the storm would likely disintegrate late Friday. Mexican civil defense officials said 10 communities had been cut off by  flooding, although no major damage was reported. The states of Veracruz, Tabasco, Puebla, Oaxaca and Guerrero were  expected to see downpours through late Friday. "These rainfall amounts may produce life-threatening flash floods and  mudslides," the NHC warned, but all coastal watches and warnings have  been lifted. Ernesto -- which was the second hurricane of the Atlantic season --  had already been buffeting Caribbean countries last week and also  dumped heavy rain on areas of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. In the Pacific, Gilma, which had swelled into a category one hurricane  on Wednesday, was downgraded to a tropical storm and expected to  weaken further. According to the latest NHC bulletin, it was 665 miles (1,070 kilometers)  west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California and was not  expected to make landfall. On Thursday, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  raised the severity of its predictions for the current hurricane season,  which officially runs from June 1 to November 30. The latest outlook calls for 12 to 17 named storms, including five to  eight hurricanes, of which two to three could be major. In May, it had  forecast nine to 15 named storms. View of a beach in Veracruz, Mexico, after the passage of Tropical Storm Ernesto, on August 9, 2012.  - AFP/cc