Death toll from torrential rains in Mexico rises to 64 as search operations expand

POZA RICA, Mexico (AP) — The death toll from last week’s torrential rains in Mexico jumped to 64 on Monday, as searches expanded to communities previously cut off by landslides.

Another 65 people were missing following the heavy rainfall in central and southeastern Mexico that caused rivers to top their banks, Civil Defense Coordinator Laura Velázquez Alzúa said during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s daily press briefing.

“There are sufficient resources, this won’t be skimped on … because we’re still in the emergency period,” Sheinbaum said.

Thousands of military personnel have been deployed across the region. In northern Veracruz, 80 communities remained inaccessible by road.

Sheinbaum acknowledged it could still be days before access is established to some places. “A lot of flights are required to take sufficient food and water” to those places, she said.

Early official estimates note 100,000 affected homes, and in some cases, houses near rivers “practically disappeared,” Sheinbaum said.

The scale of the destruction across five states was coming into clearer focus a day after Sheinbaum visited affected communities in Puebla and Veracruz, promising a rapidly scaled-up government response.

Mexico’s Civil Protection agency said the heavy rains had killed 29 people in Veracruz state on the Gulf Coast as of Monday morning, and 21 people in Hidalgo state, north of Mexico City. At least 13 were killed in Puebla, east of Mexico City. Earlier, in the central state of Querétaro, a child died in a landslide.

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