Torrential rain battered several Mexican states over several days last week, turning streets into rivers, sweeping away roads and bridges and triggering landslides.
Rescuers scrambled on Monday to reach people cut off by the devastating flooding, with 64 people killed in central and eastern Mexico and another 65 reported missing.
Dozens of small communities remained inaccessible days after the deluge, with residents working tirelessly to clear paths for the delivery of food and other supplies.
Mexico has deployed some 10,000 troops alongside civilian rescue teams to try to deal with the emergency. Helicopters have ferried food and water to 200 or so communities still cut off by road, and have evacuated the sick and injured.
“There are sufficient resources; this won’t be skimped on… because we’re still in the emergency period,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said during her daily news briefing on Monday.
Parts of Veracruz state received 62.7cm (24.7in) of rain from October 6 to 9.
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.
Mexico’s Civil Protection agency said the heavy rain had killed 29 people in Veracruz state on the Gulf of Mexico Coast as of Monday morning, and 21 in Hidalgo state, north of Mexico City.
At least 13 were killed in Puebla, east of Mexico City. In the central state of Queretaro, a child died in a landslide.
Authorities have attributed the deadly downpours to two tropical systems – Hurricane Priscilla and Tropical Storm Raymond – that formed off the western coast of Mexico but have since dissipated.
The post Death toll from devastating Mexico flooding rises appeared first on Al Jazeera.
