Hurricane Central Tropical Storms in Mexico Update: Death Toll Rises as Landslides and Flooding Block Roads Published: Sep 17, 2013, 7:47 PM EDT Associated Press

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/tropical-storms-ingrid-and-manuel-hit-mexico-20130917

Hurricane Central

Tropical Storms in Mexico Update: Death Toll Rises as Landslides and Flooding Block Roads

Published: Sep 17, 2013, 7:47 PM EDT Associated Press

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Double Slam for Mexico

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ACAPULCO, Mexico — As rescuers rush to get help to stranded tourists and others cutoff after two tropical storms hit separate coasts of Mexico, the death toll rose to 47.

With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport after Tropical Storm Manuel made landfall on Sunday. The terminal at the city's international was flooded, but not the landing strips.

(MORE: Hurricane Central)

Commercial carriers and the Mexican military responded by setting up flights ferrying tourists to a nearby concert hall instead of the terminal. Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco to evacuate at least 40,000 mainly Mexican tourists stranded in the resort city where some streets were transformed into raging brown rivers.

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Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told the Radio Formula that 27 people had died because of the storm in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located. Osorio Chong said 20 more people died nationwide, many as a result of former hurricane Ingrid, which struck the Gulf coast on Monday. Mexican meteorologists said it was the first time since 1958 that two tropical storms or hurricanes had hit both the country's coasts within 24 hours.

While most Acapulco hotels seemed to be operating normally on Tuesday, many outlying neighborhoods were without water or electricity, and floodwaters were knee-deep at the city airport's check-in counters.

Federal officials said it could take at least another day to open the main highway to Acapulco, which was hit by more than 13 landslides from surrounding hills, and to bring food and relief supplies into the city of more than 800,000 people.

(MORE:  Most Intense U.S. Hurricanes | Hurricane Safety and Prep)

Two of Mexico's largest airlines, Aeromexico and Interjet, began running flights to and from the still-swamped international airport.

Those with tickets got first priority, then families with small children or elderly members, officials said. Interjet's director Luis Jose Garza told Milenio TV that his airline's first flight was taking 150 passengers back to Mexico City and it hoped to run four to six such flights Tuesday.

The Guerrero state government said 40,000 tourists were stuck in the city, while the head of the local chamber of business owners said reports from hotels indicated the number could be as high as 60,000.

Many tourists finally emerged from their hotels Tuesday morning after days of pelting rain.

"We realized the extent of the disaster for the first time because we were closed in and only saw rain and flooding," said Alejandra Vadillo Martinez, a 24-year-old from Mexico City staying with seven relatives in the Crowne Plaza Hotel overlooking Acapulco's bay.

The main coastal boulevard was open Tuesday and most hotels appeared to have power, water and food. But that was little consolation to those unable to leave.

"We've realized that it was a mistake to come to Acapulco because all we saw was rain, rain, rain," said Guadalupe Hernandez, a 55-year-old housewife from the Mexican capital.

The situation was far more serious in the city's low-income periphery, where steep hills funneled rainwater into neighborhoods of cinderblock houses.

City officials said about 23,000 homes, mostly on Acapulco's outskirts, were without electricity and water. Stores were nearly emptied by residents who rushed to stock up on basic goods. Landslides and flooding damaged an unknown number of homes.

Natividad Gallegos said she returned Monday from shopping to find her house in a poor Acapulco neighborhood buried by a landslide that killed six members of her family, including her two children. "I saw a lot of strangers with picks and shovels, digging where my house used to be," she said, weeping.

The coastal town of Coyuca de Benitez and beach resorts further west of Acapulco, including Ixtapa and Zihuatenejo, were cut off after a river washed out a bridge on the main coastal highway.

Marcela Higuera, who runs a bread stall in the Coyuca market, said the only aid that had arrived so far was a helicopter that rescued stranded flood victims.

"Flour's already run out. There isn't any in Coyuca," she said, adding that the Coyuca River had swept away the bridge and riverside restaurants, and flooded low-lying neighborhoods. "This is the worst storm that I've seen."

"There are hundreds of people in shelters and they're begging for clothes and blankets because everything they have is wet," Higuera said. "They had to leave without taking anything."

Remnants of Manuel continued to drench Mexico further up the Pacific coast and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it could regain force near resorts at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula.

One of the biggest single death tolls was reported in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, where 12 people died when a landslide smashed into a bus traveling through the town of Altotonga, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of the state capital.

More than 23,000 people fled their homes in Veracruz state due to heavy rains spawned by Ingrid, and 9,000 went to emergency shelters. At least 20 highways and 12 bridges were damaged, the state's civil protection authority said.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Photos from Manuel and Ingrid

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A car floats in a flooded street in Acapulco, Mexico, after heavy rains hit the area on September 16, 2013. (Image: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

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Locals use ziplines to cross Mexico's flooded roads (1:12) Sept. 17 - A three-day downpour in Mexico trapped many locals in their homes and stranded nearly 40,000 visitors in the resort town of Acapulco. Deborah Gembara reports. ( Transcript )

In Mexico, the roads have turned into rivers and locals are acting accordingly --- using jet skis in the resort town of Acapulco and swimming to freedom in Chilpancingo. A three-day downpour is being blamed for some of the worst storm damage in Mexico in decades. At least 50 people have been killed since flooding began and waist-high water has trapped some 40,000 visitors in Acapulco. Many have taken shelter at the airport. In the hard hit state of Guerrero, it takes courage to cross the road as well as ropes and ziplines. The raging waters are the result of two storms, Ingrid and Manuel converging and drenching nearly 2/3rds of the country. Digging out in Veracruz state after a landslide buried two homes and a bus. Rescue workers inspected the soil searching for bodies of the 12 people killed here. Mexican officials say the storms made for one of the worst natural disasters in the country's history.

Chaos as floods submerge Mexico's Acapulco, death toll rises By Alberto Fajardo and Luis Enrique Martinez ACAPULCO, Mexico | Tue Sep 17, 2013 7:37pm EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/17/us-storm-ingrid-idUSBRE98D0AH20130917

Chaos as floods submerge Mexico's Acapulco, death toll rises

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Locals use ziplines to cross Mexico's flooded roads

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• Locals forced to swim through Mexico's flooded streets

By Alberto Fajardo and Luis Enrique Martinez

ACAPULCO, Mexico | Tue Sep 17, 2013 7:37pm EDT

(Reuters) - Mexico's famous beach resort of Acapulco was in chaos on Tuesday as hotels rationed food for thousands of stranded tourists and floodwaters swallowed homes and cars after some of the most damaging storms in decades killed at least 55 people across the country.

Television footage showed Acapulco's international airport terminal waist deep in water and workers wading out to escape floods that have prevented some 40,000 visitors from leaving and blocked one of the main access routes to the city with mud.

A torrential, three-day downpour cut off several roads into the Pacific resort of 750,000 people, which was a magnet for Hollywood stars in its heyday, but had the highest murder rate in Mexico last year amid a surge in drug gang violence.

The flooding has disrupted deliveries of supplies, piling fresh misery on a city heavily dependent on tourist spending. The entrance to a main hillside tunnel into Acapulco was completely blocked with mud.

The rains were spawned by two major storms that converged on Mexico from the Pacific and the Gulf, triggering flash floods that washed away homes and landslides in eastern Mexico.

Tropical Depression Manuel had faded but was strengthening again on the Pacific coast on Tuesday, moving northwest toward the Baja California peninsula. It was expected to become a Tropical Storm again late on Tuesday or early Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Much of Acapulco's upscale Diamante district was flooded, and tourists were unable to take cash out of bank machines due to lack of power. Fast food outlets were also without power, and insisted on payment in cash.

"I had to go to a pawn shop to leave some jewelry to get money to be able to eat and pay for accommodation," said Cristina Dominguez Navarro, who rented an apartment in Acapulco with her family.

"We came with just enough money for three days and now we have been here for five," she said. "I don't know what we'll do if they don't open the motorway soon."

Some large hotels offered stranded guests a free night of accommodation. But conditions were tough.

"They've started to ration food here," said Pedro de la Torre, a 53-year-old graphic designer from Mexico City who was stranded in a hotel in Acapulco. "People are starting to get annoyed. I lost two cars, total write-offs."

Outside the hotel, guests waded to their waterlogged vehicles in the hope of recovering whatever they could.

Since the weekend, the rains have killed at least 55 people in the states of Veracruz, Guerrero, Puebla, Hidalgo, Michoacan and Oaxaca, according to regional emergency services.

Guerrero, which is home to Acapulco, was the hardest hit with at least 34 people killed in the state, emergency services said. Some streets in the state capital if Chilpancingo became rivers of mud and its mayor, Mario Moreno, said the city had "collapsed."

"The panorama is one of devastation," said Alejandro Hernandez, a 40-year-old landscape gardener on vacation from Mexico City, holed up in an Acapulco hotel with his wife and 3-year-old daughter.

"The hotel is no longer functioning as a business. The staff is starting to leave. They have closed the front desk, switched off the computers," he said. "All they have done is caused panic by saying they are going to start rationing, turn off power and cut water."

Hundreds of people lined up outside supermarkets in Acapulco waiting to buy food. Store shelves were empty in some other areas of Guerrero state as residents stocked up and town mayors called on the government to send emergency supplies.

THOUSANDS STRANDED

President Enrique Pena Nieto said via Twitter he had ordered a "house by house" census in Guerrero and told the federal transport ministry to establish an air bridge to Mexico City.

Officials had considered using the airfield in nearby Pie de la Cuesta to restart flights but airline officials said services started to resume from the city's airport after rains abated.

The chaos began late last week when tropical storms Ingrid and Manuel converged from the Atlantic and the Pacific, drenching Mexico in massive rainfall that has hit around two thirds of the country, according to the interior ministry.

Though both of the storms have dissipated, rain is still falling in much of country and more than 1 million people have so far been affected by flooding.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said rain caused by the remnants of Ingrid could still produce life-threatening floods and mud slides in a large part of eastern Mexico.

Landslides have buried homes and a bus in the eastern state of Veracruz. Thousands were evacuated from flooded areas, some by helicopter, and taken to shelters.

State oil monopoly Pemex evacuated three oil platforms and halted drilling at some wells. A spokesman for the company said output and exports had not been affected.

The rain has caused more than 5 billion pesos ($387 million) in damage in the state of Guerrero, the local government said.

($1 = 12.92 Mexican pesos)

(Additional reporting by Simon Gardner, Anahi Rama and Ana Isabel Martinez.; Writing by Dave Graham; editing by Kieran Murray and Christopher Wilson)

Mexico storms leave dozens dead and tourists stranded Hurricane Ingrid and tropical storm Manuel result in blocked roads, landslides and 60,000 tourists being stranded in Acapulco

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/17/two-storms-mexico-deaths-tourists-stranded

Mexico storms leave dozens dead and tourists stranded

Hurricane Ingrid and tropical storm Manuel result in blocked roads, landslides and 60,000 tourists being stranded in Acapulco  

• Jo Tuckman, Mexico
• theguardian.com, Tuesday 17 September 2013 12.57 EDTShare

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Rescue workers and inhabitants took part in rescue operations after a landslide in Altotonga, Veracruz. Photograph: EPA

Two storms rolling into Mexico from two opposite fronts have hit the central American country almost simultaneously with catastrophic consequences, leaving dozens dead, roads blocked and rivers flooded across the country, as well as tens of thousands of tourists stranded in the resort city of Acapulco.

With the airport closed and the main roads out of the city blocked by landslides, as many as 60,000 tourists were reportedly stranded in the resort with plans to begin airlifting them from a nearby army base reportedly in formation.

"It has been very difficult, because all means of access have been cut off," emergency services co-ordinator Puente said.

Hurricane Ingrid moved in from the Atlantic to hit central and north-eastern Mexico with significant strength on Monday, at about the same time as tropical storm Manuel drew heavy rains from the Pacific across a broad sweep of states along the west coast.

With both systems weakened, but still active, meteorologists are forecasting more heavy rains with the possibility of more named storms forming in the next few days.

The federal government's head of emergency services, Luis Felipe Puente, reported a death toll of 38 on Tuesday, but this number looks set to rise as the full extent of the destruction becomes clear.

The worst affected state appears to be Guerrero, which has suffered extensive damage in the small towns and villages along its extensive coastline and mountain ranges as well as in its tourist hot spot Acapulco, which has sustained serious floods and landslides.

"When I got home I saw a lot of strangers with picks and shovels digging where my house used to be," Natividad Gallegos, who said she lost her two children and four other members of her family in the storm, told the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Gulf Coast states are also struggling to managed multiple emergencies caused by hurricane Ingrid, reportedly particularly acute in the state of Veracruz.

State authorities have reported that 12 people died in a single incident in which a landslide smashed into a bus on a road close to the state capital.

Alberto Hernandez, of the national weather centre, told MVS Radio on Tuesday this was the first time that two named storms had hit the country at the same time since 1958. He said Manuel and Ingrid had become exceptionally destructive as they had combined forces to form one large slow-moving new system that has spread across the country.

Hernandez forecast more heavy rain and noted that the remnants of Manuel are regaining strength in the north-west and could develop into a new storm. There is also a new system in the south-east off the coast of the Yucatán peninsula that is also threatening to develop into a named tropical storm on Wednesday as it heads north-west.

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Want to have a great (and cheap) time in Cancun without doing the all-inclusive thing? AUG 24 Posted by TC

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Books I Like for Studying Spanish →

Want to have a great (and cheap) time in Cancun without doing the all-inclusive thing?

AUG 24

Posted by TC

Budget Travel in Cancun, Mexico?

You can smell the sea from the Cancun airport. No more stuffy airplane, no more boring job in your cold hometown. Welcome to paradise – the Mayan Riviera. Welcome to Cancun.

The Mayan Riviera is a 130 km stretch of Caribbean coastline in southeast Mexico. Between Cancún in the north and the Mayan ruins of Tulum in the south are countless white-sand beaches on the calm turquoise water of the Caribbean.

Cancun is famous for all-inclusive luxury resorts, while formerly lesser-known beach hangouts like Playa del Carmen are now firmly established on the beaten path. But a budget-conscious side remains to these world-class tourist destinations. You can still get a nice hotel room for under $30 USD in downtown Cancun, and eat the best – and cheapest – local food just a few blocks from the beach in Playa del Carmen.

The great Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, are only a few hours from Cancún on good highways. In the other direction, rocky Tulum rivals Chichén Itzá with its location on limestone cliffs overlooking the sky-blue Caribbean.

My Cancun and Mayan Riviera 5-Day Itinerary is for the independent traveler who likes the beach but also wants some culture. Besides saving a lot of money, you:

• Have two full days on two gorgeous beaches: Cancún and Playa del Carmen.
• Explore two Mayan ruins: Chichén Itzá, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and Tulum, a sunny fortress built on cliffs overlooking one of the most iconic beaches in Mexico.
• Dip your toe into Yucatán culture in Valladolid, a small colonial town in central Yucatán.
• Swim, snorkel or scuba dive in the clear, freshwater Dos Ojos cenote.
• Eat what Mexicans eat: seafood, tacos, and Yucatán specialties like panuchos and salbutes.
• Shop, party, get tan, and learn some Spanish, history and culture. And, if time permits, venture farther into Mexico and Central America.

It’s cheap at $5 for 43 pages of solid information. (Actually it’s only 4.99.) You’ll save that much the first time you follow my advice on a bus, restaurant or cenote.

The Mayan Riviera is the most traveled part of Mexico. People go there for a beautiful time in a beautiful hotel, on a beautiful beach.

But I say: Skip the beautiful hotel! Of course hang out on the beautiful beach, but don’t miss the beautiful culture too.

This part of Mexico may be the most visited, but perhaps the least understood. I try to remedy this with my modest guide.

My Unanchor Tour Itineraries

Cancun and Mayan Riviera 5-Day Itinerary

Most famous for Cancun, the Mayan Riviera is Mexico’s tourist fantasyland, a jungle coastline of white-sand beaches…
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Books I Like for Studying Spanish SEP 14 Posted by TC

← Want to have a great (and cheap) time in Cancun without doing the all-inclusive thing?

Books I Like for Studying Spanish

SEP 14

Posted by TC

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The best way to learn a language is to speak it. Find someone to practice with. There’s no substitute for practice.

And if you aren’t speaking it, listen to it. Listen to music. Listen to podcasts. Listen to university lectures in ITunes University, a free part of the ITunes store. (Change your language to Spanish.)

But if you want fluency, you have to hit the books too. Don’t stress yourself out. Just do a page or two a day. Studying in frequent but short periods of time is better than hours of cramming once a week. As both a teacher and student, I fully agree with the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Choose books with simple, clear text – not a lot of photos and distractions. The books I have for my university English classes where I work here in Mexico are full of confusing, unnecessary and downright cheesy stuff, as if to distract the students so they don’t realize they are studying, but having fun instead. Ridiculous.

(I have a theory about ESL books – that every one includes Nelson Mandela, J.K. Rowling or the Japanese hot dog-eating lady.)

It’s absolutely necessary that the answers to the exercises are in the back of the book. Again, the books I have to teach English with don’t do that. It must be part of the contract between the publishing companies and the universities.

If you are a total beginner, get a book that teaches what you need most: common questions and answers.

Communicating in Spanish is a good guide to get you started speaking Spanish. It has the basic questions and answers and lists of important vocabulary. It won’t confuse you with explanations of complicated Spanish grammar.

(Click the pictures of the books below to see them on Amazon.)

One of the hardest things about Spanish – a big difference from English – are verb conjugations. Verbs change for every person (I, you, she, we, etc.) and every tense (past, present, etc. – including several that don’t exist in English, like imperfect, pluperfect, and the frustrating subjunctive tenses). You’ve got your work cut out for you.

Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish is the best book I’ve seen that introduces these grammar necessities:

¡Click the book!

Because of this abundance of verb conjugations in Spanish, you have to do a lot of exercises. I’ve worked my way through Spanish Verb Tenses twice now.

(Tip: don’t write in your books. Write in a notebook or on scrap paper instead. Then you can do the exercises again or sell the book.)

This series, Practice Makes Perfect, has a lot of good workbooks. I’ve used this one too:

Right now I’m on Advanced Spanish Grammar. This book covers a lot of ground – vocabulary, verb conjugations, cultural notes and regional differences in Spanish. Plus it’s all in Spanish – instructions too, which is useful:

And finally, I bought Contemporary Latin American Literature on my last trip to the states and have cracked it a few times. It is an overview of important writers with their poems, short stories, and novel excerpts.

Please leave suggestions for studying Spanish the comments. Thanks for reading!