Updated: 11:41 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013 | Posted: 11:40 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013 Manuel a hurricane after deadly Mexico flooding

Updated: 11:41 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013 | Posted: 11:40 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013

Manuel a hurricane after deadly Mexico flooding

•  0 0 0 New

Related

View Larger 

People wade through waist-high water in a store's parking, looking for valuables, south of Acapulco, in Punta Diamante, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Mexico was hit by the one-two punch of twin storms over the weekend, and the storm that soaked Acapulco on Sunday - Manuel -re-formed into a tropical storm Wednesday, threatening to bring more flooding to the country's northern coast. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

People stand on the edge of a collapsed bridge as they wait to ferry their goods via a boat across the Papagayos River, south of Acapulco, near Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Mexico was hit by the one-two punch of twin storms over the weekend, and the storm that soaked Acapulco on Sunday - Manuel -re-formed into a tropical storm Wednesday, threatening to bring more flooding to the country's northern coast. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

Residents of Mochitlan, carry supplies up a hill, as others come down to get supplies, on the outskirts of Chilpancingo, Mexico, Wednesday Sept. 18, 2013. After Tropical Storm Manuel destroyed bridges and roads, making it impossible to have supplies delivered to them, the residents of this small town have opted to make the 3 hour journey by foot, in order to get food and necessary supplies for their families. (AP Photo/Alejandrino Gonzalez)

View Larger 

Residents of Mochitlan, haul supplies up a hill on the outskirts of Chilpancingo, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. After Tropical Storm Manuel destroyed bridges and roads, making it impossible to have supplies delivered to them, the residents of this small town have opted to make the 3 hour journey by foot, in order to get food and necessary supplies for their families. (AP Photo/Alejandrino Gonzalez)

View Larger 

Residents of Mochitlan haul supplies up a hill on the outskirts of Chilpancingo, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. After Tropical Storm Manuel destroyed bridges and roads, making it impossible to have supplies delivered to them, the residents of this small town have opted to make the 3 hour journey by foot, in order to get food and necessary supplies for their families. (AP Photo/Alejandrino Gonzalez)

View Larger 

A woman cleans her belongings that have been damaged by the flooding, south of Acapulco, in Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Mexico was hit by the one-two punch of twin storms over the weekend, and the storm that soaked Acapulco on Sunday - Manuel -re-formed into a tropical storm Wednesday, threatening to bring more flooding to the country's northern coast. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

People stand on the edge of a collapsed bridge, background, as they wait to ferry their goods via a boat across the Papagayos River, south of Acapulco, near Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Mexico was hit by the one-two punch of twin storms over the weekend, and the storm that soaked Acapulco on Sunday - Manuel -re-formed into a tropical storm Wednesday, threatening to bring more flooding to the country's northern coast. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

A federal police helicopter flies over a river, south of Acapulco, near the town of Lomas de Chapultepec, Guerrero state, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. 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 airport as well, was flooded. Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco to evacuate at least 40,000 mainly Mexican tourists stranded in the resort city. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

A family rests in a shelter as they wait to be ferried out by air, south of Acapulco, in Punta Diamante, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Mexico was hit by the one-two punch of twin storms over the weekend, and the storm that soaked Acapulco on Sunday - Manuel -re-formed into a tropical storm Wednesday, threatening to bring more flooding to the country's northern coast. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

Marisela, 24, holds her newly-born daughter Paola Jazmin, in a shelter for residents affected by Tropical Storm Manuel, south of Acapulco, in Punta Diamante, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Mexico was hit by the one-two punch of twin storms over the weekend, and the storm that soaked Acapulco on Sunday - Manuel -re-formed into a tropical storm Wednesday, threatening to bring more flooding to the country's northern coast. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

Remnants of a collapsed bridge litter the Papagayos River, south of Acapulco, near Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. Mexico was hit by the one-two punch of twin storms over the weekend, and the storm that soaked Acapulco on Sunday - Manuel -re-formed into a tropical storm Wednesday, threatening to bring more flooding to the country's northern coast. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

A civil defense member takes pictures of a collapsed bridge over the Papagayos River near Lomas de Chapultepec, Guerrero state, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. 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 airport as well, was flooded. Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco to evacuate at least 40,000 mainly Mexican tourists stranded in the resort city. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

091813: Map locates Acapulco, Mexico; 1c x 2 inches; with BC-Tropical Weather; ETA 4 p.m.; 1c x 2 inches; 46.5 mm x 50 mm;

View Larger 

Men looks at a collapsed bridge over the Papagayos River near Lomas de Chapultepec, Guerrero state, Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. 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 airport as well, was flooded. Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco to evacuate at least 40,000 mainly Mexican tourists stranded in the resort city. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

View Larger 

This NOAA satellite image taken Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013 at 1:45 PM EDT shows a swirl of clouds associated with Tropical Storm Humberto in the central Atlantic Basin. A storm center with a line of clouds over the eastern Atlantic are associated with a storm center and fronts. Scattered clouds are located across the eastern Caribbean. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

Sponsored Links

• 24 hour digital pass only 99 cent sign for premium AJC 

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN

The Associated Press

ACAPULCO, Mexico — 

The toll from devastating twin storms climbed to 80 on Wednesday as isolated areas reported deaths and damage to the outside world. Mexican officials said another 58 people were missing in a massive landslide in the mountains north of Acapulco.

The storm that devastated the Pacific resort over the weekend regained strength Wednesday and became Hurricane Manuel, taking a route that could see it make landfall on Mexico's northwestern coast. It would be a third blow to a country still reeling from the one-two punch of Manuel's first landfall and Hurricane Ingrid on Mexico's eastern coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Manuel was hugging Mexico's coast late Wednesday and was about 5 miles from the village of Altata. It called Manuel a small hurricane that is expected to produce between 5 and 10 inches of rain over the state of Sinaloa.

Sinaloa state civil protection authorities said some areas were already flooding in the towns of Escuinapa, El Rosario and Mazatlan. At least 60 families were evacuated from the village of Yameto, authorities said. The affected area is mainly small fishing villages.

Outside Acapulco, federal authorities reached the mountain village of La Pintada by helicopter and evacuated 334 people, many of whom are hurt, one seriously, said Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong,

Osorio Chong said at least 58 people are missing in the coffee-growing village where many homes were buried by a landslide, adding that there is a risk of more landslides. Officials have not yet seen any bodies, he said, despite reports from people in the area that at least 15 people had been killed.

He said the landslide went right through the middle of the village.

"Several two-floor houses and the church were completely buried," Osorio Chong said.

Mayor Ediberto Tabares of the township of Atoyac told Milenio television late Wednesday that 15 bodies had been recovered in the village. Tabares told the same television station earlier in the day that 18 bodies had been found.

Atoyac, a largely rural township about 42 miles (70 kilometers) west of Acapulco, is accessible only by a highway broken multiple times by landslides and flooding.

Ricardo de la Cruz, a spokesman for the federal Department of Civil Protection, said the death toll had risen to 80 from 60 earlier in the day, although he did not provide details of the reports that drove it up.

In Acapulco, three days of Biblical rain and leaden skies evaporated into broiling late-summer sunshine that roasted thousands of furious tourists trying vainly to escape the city, and hundreds of thousands of residents returning to homes devastated by reeking tides of brown floodwater.

The depth of the destruction wreaked by Manuel, which first hit Mexico Sunday as a tropical storm, was highlighted when the transportation secretary said it would be Friday at the earliest before authorities cleared the parallel highways that connect this bayside resort to Mexico City and the rest of the world.

Hundreds of residents of Acapulco's poor outlying areas slogged through waist-high water to pound on the closed shutters of a looted Costco, desperate for food, drinking water and other basics.

Many paused and fished in the murky waters for anything of value piling waterlogged clothing and empty aluminum cans into plastic bags.

"If we can't work, we have to come and get something to eat," said 60-year-old fisherman Anastasio Barrera, as he stood with his wife outside the store.

Forecasters said Manuel had top sustained winds of 75 mph (115 kph). A hurricane warning is in effect from La Cruz to Topolobampo in Sinaloa.

With a tropical disturbance over the Yucatan Peninsula headed toward Mexico's Gulf coast, the country could face another double hit as it struggles to restore services and evacuate those stranded by flooding from Manuel and Ingrid, which hit the Gulf coast.

Mexico's federal Civil Protection coordinator, Luis Felipe Puente, said 35,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Elsewhere in the verdant coastal countryside of the southern state of Guerrero, residents turned motorboats into improvised ferries, shuttling passengers, boxes of fruit and jugs of water across rivers that surged and ripped bridges from their foundations over the weekend.

In Acapulco's upscale Diamond Zone, the military commandeered a commercial center for tourists trying to get onto one of the military or commercial flights that remained the only way out of the city. Thousands lined up outside the mall's locked gates, begging for a seat on a military seat or demanding that airline Aeromexico honor a previously purchased ticket.

"We don't even have money left to buy water," said Tayde Sanchez Morales, a retired electric company worker from the city of Puebla. "The hotel threw us out and we're going to stay here and sleep here until they throw us out of here."

A lucky few held up ransacked beach umbrellas against the sun. Temperatures were in the mid-80s but felt far hotter. Dozens of others collapsed in some of the few spots of shade.

"Forty-eight hours without electricity, no running water and now we can't get home," said Catalina Clave, 46, who works at the Mexico City stock exchange.

Mexico's federal transportation secretary said that at least 8,000 people had been flown out of the city on 49 flights by Wednesday afternoon, a fraction of the 40,000 to 60,000 tourists estimated to be stranded in the city.

In the low-lying neighborhood of Colosio, residents drove through knee-high brown water to reach homes whose bottom floors were glazed in brown sediment.

"We're devastated," said Jorge Luis Pacheco Meijia, a 26-year-old English professor, pausing as he piled sodden, soiled furniture and appliances outside his house. "All the time you spend working from dusk 'til dawn, everything's lost."

____

Associated Press writers Martin Duran in Culiacan and E. Eduardo Castillo and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.

____

Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein

Copyright The Associated Press

18 September 2013 Last updated at21:42 ET r Mexico storms: Hurricane Manuel upgraded and near coast

18 September 2013 Last updated at21:42 ET

Share this page

• Email
• Print

589

• Share
• Facebook
• Twitter

Mexico storms: Hurricane Manuel upgraded and near coast

Paulino Aguirre, from the Red Cross, says there is "no way to help" some of those stranded

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Mexico battered by two deadly storms
• Mexico mudslides and floods kill 14
• Storm Ernesto hits Mexico again

US meteorologists say Tropical Storm Manuel, which has battered the south-west of Mexico, has gathered strength and is now a category one hurricane.

Hurricane Manuel is now approaching north-western Mexico and threatens more destruction, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

The tropical storms Ingrid and Manuel killed 80 people earlier this week.

Now 58 people are reported missing after a landslide buried a village in the south-west of the country.

US experts say Hurricane Manuel is sustaining winds of 120km/h (75mph) and moving towards the coast.

'Very powerful landslide'

President Enrique Pena Nieto said that 58 people were missing after the landslide in the village of La Pintada in Guerrero state.

"It doesn't look good, based on the photos we have in our possession," said Mexican Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, saying it was a "very powerful" landslide.

"Up to this point, we do not have any [confirmed] dead in the landslide," he added.

Tens of thousands of tourists, cut off by landslides caused by Manuel, are still being transported out of the Mexican resort of Acapulco.

More than 2,000 tourists have been airlifted from the Air Base Seven military facility north of the resort.

Since the weekend, passengers have been stranded in hotels and at Acapulco's international airport, where water flooded the terminal.

Manuel was almost immediately followed by Hurricane Ingrid, causing widespread devastation in the east of the country. It was the first time since 1958 that two powerful storms hit Mexico within 24 hours.

Main roads out of Acapulco have been blocked by landslips, leaving tourists and local residents stranded in the city and along Mexico's west coast.

Floodwaters prevented passengers from using the airport's terminal at Acapulco international airport

Residents help to unload humanitarian aid from a military plane at the Pie de La Cuesta military base

A stranded boy sleeps next to his dog in a shelter as he awaits evacuation

Stranded tourists took the opportunity to rest in a shelter in Acapulco

Aircraft sit on the flooded tarmac at the airport of Acapulco

A handful of supermarkets were looted by residents on Tuesday

At Air Base Seven, soldiers guarded families who waited for hours outside the base until they were allowed to board one of the few aircraft which would take them to Mexico City.

In Acapulco, passengers were being taken directly from shelters to the runway because the main airport terminal remained closed.

"I see everybody helping," said Canadian tourist Michael Paliti, adding that he was "trying to get home as best as possible".

"We're desperate because we cannot return to our city or jobs. But for now, there's still no hope of returning," Isabel Duarte, another tourist, said.

Dozens of other towns in the south-western Guerrero state have also been hit by Manuel since it made landfall on Sunday.

The BBC's Darren Bett explains what weather Mexico can now expect over the coming days.

There are fears that remote hillside communities may be particularly affected. Manuel has now dispersed over south-western Mexico.

In the east, Hurricane Ingrid was downgraded to a tropical storm shortly before it made landfall on Monday near the town of La Pesca.

More than 20,000 people have since been evacuated in the state of Veracruz.

Mexicans are now hoping for a break in the weather to give them a chance to regroup and allow rescuers to operate more freely, the BBC's Will Grant in Mexico City reports.

But there seems to be no let-up in the rain and powerful winds for the time being, our correspondent adds.

Are you in the area? Are you affected by the storms? Send us your experience using the form below.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.ukor text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100(International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

Tourists stranded as floods submerge Mexico's Acapulco, death toll ... The Globe and Mail Local officials had considered using the airfield in nearby Pie de la Cuesta to restart flights but airline Aeromexico later said steps were being taken to transport ... See all stories on this topic »

Tourists stranded as floods submerge Mexico's Acapulco, death toll ...The Globe and Mail

Local officials had considered using the airfield in nearby Pie de la Cuesta to restart flights but airline Aeromexico later said steps were being taken to transport ...

See all stories on this topic »

Tourists stranded as floods submerge Mexico’s Acapulco, death toll rises

LUIS ENRIQUE MARTINEZ AND ALBERTO FAJARDO

ACAPULCO, Mexico — Reuters

Published Tuesday, Sep. 17 2013, 2:11 PM EDT

Last updated Tuesday, Sep. 17 2013, 2:15 PM EDT

2 comments

• 
  

Stranded tourists salvaged belongings from submerged cars in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco, which had become a floodplain on Tuesday after some of the worst storm damage in decades killed more than 50 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 about 40,000 visitors leaving and blocked one of the main access routes to the city with mud.

MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

• Powerful typhoon lashes Japan, floods force thousands to evacuate
• Flooded Colorado mountain towns begin cleanup efforts
• Death toll expected to rise in Colorado floods as 500 remain unaccounted for

VIDEO

Video: Clear skies in Colorado allow rescue of people, pets

VIDEO

Video: Deadly tropical storm, hurricane hammer Mexican coast

VIDEO

Video: Dozens unaccounted for in Colorado floods

A three-day downpour cut off several roads in Acapulco, wrecking cars and restricting the delivery of supplies to the Pacific port city of 750,000 people where the tourist trade has suffered in recent years from a surge in drug gang violence.

“They’ve started to ration food here,” said Pedro de la Torre, a 53-year-old graphic designer from Mexico City stranded in a large international hotel in Acapulco. “People are starting to get annoyed. I lost two cars, total write-offs,” he added.

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

Since the weekend, the rains have killed more than 50 people in the states of Veracruz, Guerrero, Puebla, Hidalgo, Michoacan and Oaxaca, according to regional emergency services.

Guerrero has been the hardest hit, with some streets in the state capital Chilpancingo becoming rivers of mud and the local mayor Mario Moreno saying the city had “collapsed.”

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.

Local officials had considered using the airfield in nearby Pie de la Cuesta to restart flights but airline Aeromexico later said steps were being taken to transport stranded passengers directly to the tarmac of the city’s airport.

Flights were due to begin again on Tuesday morning in Acapulco, where the rains have now abated.

The flooding 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 the country and more than one 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 already 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 had to evacuate three oil platforms and halted drilling at some wells. A spokesman for the company said output and exports had not been affected.

Inside Acapulco, much of the city’s upscale Diamante district was flooded, with dozens of cars under water.

At least 34 people in Guerrero have so far died since the flooding swept the country, local emergency services said.

The rain had caused the state of Guerrero damages of more than five billion pesos ($387-million), the local government said.

MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

• Tropical storm Ingrid upgraded to hurricane status
• Thousands driven from homes as floodwaters rise in Colorado
• Crews work to remove flammable cargo from scene of Calgary derailment

Published on Sep 18, 2013 In our news wrap Wednesday, House Republican leaders announced they would try to block funding for the health care reform law, even if it means shutting down the government at month's end. Also, in Mexico, the death toll rose to nearly 60 in the wake of two storms that hit both coasts of that country.

Published on Sep 18, 2013 In our news wrap Wednesday, House Republican leaders announced they would try to block funding for the health care reform law, even if it means shutting down the government at month's end. Also, in Mexico, the death toll rose to nearly 60 in the wake of two storms that hit both coasts of that country.