MEXICO CITY, June 1 (Reuters) – The death toll caused by Hurricane Agatha in Mexico fell to nine after initial reports of 11 dead, state authorities said on Wednesday.
Another four are currently missing, authorities told local media.
Agatha made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on Monday afternoon, touching down with 105 mile-per-hour (169 km per hour) winds near the beach town of Puerto Angel on the Pacific coast, before dissipating on Tuesday as it moved inland.
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The governor of Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca, Alejandro Murat, had said on Wednesday morning that 11 were dead and 33 missing following the storm.
A man walks at a beach covered in rubbish and debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Agatha, in Zipolite, Oaxaca state, Mexico, June 1, 2022. REUTERS/Jose de Jesus Cortes
State authorities said many of the missing were found after contact was reestablished with Oaxaca’s remote communities.
Oaxaca’s governor said the tallies of dead and missing were preliminary, and urged people to remain alert.
“It’s important the entire population remains safe. There’s a likelihood of landslides and river flooding,” Murat said, speaking by video link at a regular government news briefing.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Wednesday morning there was an 80% chance that a cyclone would form in the Atlantic from Agatha’s remnants in the next 48 hours.
“This system is likely to become a tropical depression while it moves northeastward over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and southeastern Gulf of Mexico during the next couple of days,” the Miami-based agency said.
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Reporting by Valentine Marie Hilaire, Brendan O’Boyle, Lizbeth Diaz and Kylie Madry; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Jonathan Oatis and Kenneth Maxwell
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