Grace leaves at least 8 dead after entering Mexico as hurricane before weakening

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The remnants of Grace, which entered Mexico as a hurricane on Saturday (21), leaving at least eight dead, dissipated in the country’s west but potentially returning to form a tropical cyclone in the Pacific.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued its latest bulletin for this phenomenon, which at 3PM local time [21h00 GMT] had already been downgraded to a tropical disturbance with winds of 35 km/h.

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However, Mexico’s National Water Commission warned that heavy rains will continue and that on Sunday, Grace’s cloudiness will enter the Pacific “with the possibility of developing into a tropical cyclone” off the coast of Jalisco (west).”

In Veracruz (east), the government confirmed at least eight deaths due to Grace, which entered early in the morning through the municipality of Tecolutla as a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale (out of 5), with winds exceeding 200 km/h

THE LAND WAS FALLING

“Unfortunately, we have seven deaths” in the state capital Xalapa and one more in the city of Poza Rica, said Cuitláhuac García, governor of Veracruz, in a press conference.

He detailed that the largest number of victims was recorded in Xalapa, where a hillside collapsed on a small house. “We have here the death of six people, the mother, and the minors,” he said.

With a lost look and a broken voice, Adán Moreno, the father of the deceased family, remembers when, before his eyes, his humble house made of fragile materials was crushed.

“I was about to leave for work. I heard a bang on the sheeting (of the roof) and went out to see. I heard that the earth was falling (…) and the hill collapsed, and there they were all down, my wife and my six children,” he told AFP.

With the help of his relatives, he dug to find his family. Only one of his children was saved, but his wife and the other five, including a 15-day-old girl, died.

One more minor died in another sector of Xalapa, while the eighth victim is a man walking through Poza Rica’s streets during the hurricane. “My condolences to the families of children and adults who died in the hurricane,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrote on Twitter.

Veracruz had reported three missings, but they were located in the afternoon.

RIVER ALERT

In Tecolutla, with some 24,000 inhabitants, the streets were practically impassable due to the numerous trees, sheets, and other blown-away materials.

In the beach area, Esteban Domínguez, his face protected by a mask, looks with tears in his eyes at the palapa (hut) reduced to rubble that used to house his restaurant. He hoped to be “half recovering” from the drop in tourism due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is the effort of many years. Being at the edge of the beach, we know that this is how it is. On that side, I have my poor house, but it destroyed it, left me without a roof, without furniture,” he told AFP.

After the cyclone, the authorities remain on alert due to the threat of overflowing rivers and landslides, mainly in Veracruz.

Authorities in Puebla, Hidalgo (center), San Luis Potosí (north), and Tamaulipas (northeast) also warned the population of the risk of flooding and landslides due to rainfall from the remnants of Grace, while in Mexico City, it rained for hours since early morning.

Against weather forecasts, which estimated that it would be a category 2 at most, Grace intensified rapidly as it passed through the Gulf of Mexico. In a few hours, it strengthened from 1 to 3, which turned it into a potentially destructive phenomenon.

This is the second time that Grace made landfall in Mexican territory, after Thursday’s Category 1 landfall in the Caribbean resort of Tulum, where it left minor material damage.