Ten people died and about twenty are missing following the arrival on Monday on the coast of the state of Oaxaca (southern Mexico) of hurricane Agatha, downgraded Tuesday, May 31 to a tropical storm, a announced the local government.
“Right now we have about 20 missing people (…) in the mountains,” Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat told Radio Formula. “Ten [people] lost their lives,” he added.
“When Agatha made landfall, the day ended with no loss of life, but heavy rains that fell early Tuesday morning caused rivers to burst their banks and caused landslides,” he said. a little earlier to the press, while a previous report reported three dead and eight missing.
Thousands of tourists
The phenomenon, the first hurricane of the season on the Pacific coast of Mexico, made landfall as a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale (which has 5) on Monday afternoon, west of Puerto Angel, a coastal town of about 2,500 inhabitants in the state of Oaxaca.
It was “the most violent hurricane” ever recorded on the Pacific coast of Mexico in May since 1949, the National Hurricane Center of the United States (NHC) assured on Monday. Agatha moved on Tuesday to the south of the state of Veracruz (east), which borders the Gulf of Mexico, causing torrential rains in this region and the south of the country.
Some 5,240 tourists have been identified in the risk zone, between the resorts of Puerto Escondido or Huatulco, according to local authorities.
Mexico is hit by tropical cyclones on its Pacific and Atlantic coasts every year, usually between May and November.
