Mudslides in eastern Mexico have left at least 40 people dead and dozens of settlements cut off
A priest in the Mexican state of Puebla said parish and archdiocesan officials are attempting to assess the needs of isolated and impoverished pockets of eastern Mexico, which were hit hard with heavy rains and mudslides, leaving at least 40 dead and dozens of settlements cut off.
“At this point, nothing is getting in,” said Fr Jose Corona Ortega, pastor at the Our Lady of Assumption parish in Huauchinango, some 120 miles east of Mexico City. “We have attended to the few people that have been able to come by (the parish), but the roads are closed.”
Fr Corona estimated attendance at Mass on August 7 to be two-thirds of normal, with parishioners donating and collecting food, household items and blankets. A group from the social ministry of the Archdiocese of Tulancingo would assess the situation as conditions allowed, he said.
“Many communities are inaccessible,” Fr Corona said.
Archbishop Victor Sanchez Espinosa of Puebla said on August 8 that three parishes would be turned into shelters, and collections would be held for those displaced.
Tropical Storm Earl, which originally made landfall in Belize as a hurricane, dumped heavy rains on mountainous regions of Puebla and Veracruz. Puebla state officials — who said the storm brought more rain in a few days than an entire month in the normal wet summer — put the death toll at 29, though rescue workers the next day cited higher figures. Veracruz officials put the death toll at 11 in the state.
“Sadness in Mexico for the dozens of victims in Puebla and Veracruz due to the passing of Hurricane Earl,” Auxiliary Bishop Alfonso Miranda Guardiola of Monterrey, secretary of the Mexican bishops’ conference, tweeted on August 8. “Our prayers and solidarity.”
