Dozens Are Dead and Dozens More Missing as Catastrophic Rains Devastate Mexico

Mexican authorities are searching for dozens of missing people and struggling to supply aid to thousands more who were caught off guard by torrential rains that drenched several parts of the country, causing severe damage over the weekend.

Officials said Monday that 64 people had been killed and 65 were missing across five affected states near the Gulf of Mexico.

The toll is expected to increase in the coming days as search and rescue teams continue to reach areas cut off by landslides.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday morning that her administration estimated that roughly 100,000 homes were affected by flooding and landslides. Dozens of communities remained isolated, and the president said food and water would need to be flown in.

“There were no scientific or meteorological conditions that could have indicated to us that the rainfall would be of this magnitude,” Ms. Sheinbaum told reporters, adding that the government’s eyes were mostly on the Pacific, where two storms, Priscilla and Raymond, had formed off western Mexico last week.

But it was in the central and eastern parts of the country — in the states of Veracruz, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro and Puebla — where extremely intense and localized downpours caused the most destruction, overflowing rivers and setting off landslides.

Some towns saw around 20 inches of rain dumped in just four days, government figures show.

Ms. Sheinbaum is facing pressure to provide quick relief to the victims, a task hampered by recent budget cuts to climate-change mitigation efforts and the loss of a special disaster relief fund that was dissolved by her predecessor and mentor over corruption claims. (No cases of corruption directly linked to the fund have been legally proven).

Ms. Sheinbaum is facing pressure to provide quick relief to the victims, a task hampered by recent budget cuts to climate-change mitigation efforts...

WTF??? Writer Emiliano Rodríguez Mega is absolutely nuts. How can focusing on the weather 100 years from now prevent quick relief to today's disaster victims? Do these writers know how stupid they look?

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