Mexico is in recovery after one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded and a raging hurricane dealt a devastating one-two punch to the country, killing at least 63 people as workers scrambled to respond to the twin national emergencies.
The 8.1 quake off the southern Pacific coast just before midnight Thursday toppled hundreds of buildings in several states. Hardest-hit was Juchitan, Oaxaca, where 36 people died and a third of the city’s homes collapsed or were uninhabitable, President Enrique Pena Nieto said late Friday in an interview with the Televisa news network.
In central Juchitan, the remains of brick walls and clay tile roofs cluttered streets as families dragged mattresses on to pavements to spend a second anxious night sleeping outdoors.
Mexico is in recovery after one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded and a raging hurricane dealt a devastating one-two punch to the country, killing at least 63 people
The 8.1 quake off the southern Pacific coast just before midnight Thursday toppled hundreds of buildings in several states
Hardest-hit was Juchitan, Oaxaca, where 36 people died and a third of the city’s homes collapsed or were uninhabitable, President Enrique Pena Nieto said late Friday in an interview with the Televisa news network
Pena Nieto announced that the earthquake killed 45 people in Oaxaca state, 12 in Chiapas and 4 in Tabasco, and he declared three days of national mourning.
The epicenter of the earthquake, according to Nieto was 123km southwest of the town of Pijijiapan.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude of the earthquake late on Thursday was 8.1, but Pena Nieto said on Friday it was 8.2, making it the largest in Mexico in 100 years.
Hurricane Katia was roaring onshore north of Tecolutla in Veracruz state, pelting the region with intense rains and winds on Friday.
Katia, which brought rain to the state of Veracruz when hitting the coast late on Friday, was about 115 miles (185 km) west northwest of the Gulf Coast port of Veracruz early on Saturday morning, the NHC said.
Pena Nieto announced that the earthquake killed 45 people in Oaxaca state, 12 in Chiapas and 4 in Tabasco, and he declared three days of national mourning
In central Juchitan, the remains of brick walls and clay tile roofs cluttered streets as families dragged mattresses on to pavements to spend a second anxious night sleeping outdoors.
Katia now is stalling over Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains and the maximum sustained winds are now down to near 40 mph. It was expected to continue to dissipate over the course of Saturday.
Officials in Veracruz said Katia could cause landslides and flooding. They urged people living below hills and slopes to be ready to evacuate.
Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes has already said that two have died in a mudslide since the hurricane hit according to the Washington Post.
Hospital patients had to be evacuated from crumbling hospitals and laid out under the shade of trees
Those that could get to shelter struggled to find places on the hard floors to sleep but a vast amount of people were forced to sleep on mattresses outside
The epicenter of the earthquake, according to Nieto was 123km southwest of the town of Pijijiapan
He also reported that 2,866 people were evacuated from their homes.
Mexico’s national emergency services said this week that Katia was worrying because it is very slow-moving and could dump a lot of rain on areas that have been saturated in recent weeks.
State energy company Pemex has installations in and around the coast of Veracruz but has not reported any disruption to its operations there.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude of the earthquake late on Thursday was 8.1, but Pena Nieto said on Friday it was 8.2, making it the largest in Mexico in 100 years
Soldiers remove debris from a partly collapsed municipal building felled by a massive earthquake
A third of the Juchitan’s homes were either collasped or made uninhabitable
Hurricane Katia was roaring onshore north of Tecolutla in Veracruz state, pelting the region with intense rains and winds on Friday
Rescuers searched for survivors Friday with sniffer dogs and used heavy machinery at the main square to pull rubble away from city hall, where a missing police officer was believed to be inside.
One rescue included pulling four people, including two children, from the collasped Hotel Del Rio alive even though one woman had died there as well.
The city’s civil defence co-ordinator, Jose Antonio Marin Lopez, said similar searches had been going on all over the area since the previous night.
Katia, which brought rain to the state of Veracruz when hitting the coast late on Friday, was about 115 miles (185 km) west northwest of the Gulf Coast port of Veracruz early on Saturday morning, the NHC said
Katia now is stalling over Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains and the maximum sustained winds are now down to near 40 mph. It was expected to continue to dissipate over the course of Saturday
Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes has already said that two have died in a mudslide since the hurricane hit according to the Washington Post
As Katia reached the Mexican Gulf Coast, Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, walloped Cuba’s northern coast.
Millions of Florida residents were ordered to evacuate after the storm killed 21 people in the eastern Caribbean and left catastrophic destruction in its wake.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Jose continued to move northwestward in the Atlantic and was blowing winds of 145 mph as a Category 4 storm about 160 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands early on Saturday morning. (Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
He also reported that 2,866 people were evacuated from their homes
Workers worked to board up homes and hotels in the area in anticipation of the storm which has since gotten weaker
Mexico’s national emergency services said this week that Katia was worrying because it is very slow-moving and could dump a lot of rain on areas that have been saturated in recent weeks
Hurricane Katia (left) has reached Mexico but Hurricane Irma (center) is headed for Florida after demolishing the Carribean and Hurricane Jose sits in the Atlantic Ocean