Tropical storm Narda left a trail of damage along Mexico’s Pacific coast as it moved northward during the past seven days, hitting the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero particularly hard.
The storm claimed the lives of two people in Oaxaca: a 23-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy who were swept away by floodwaters while trying to cross rivers in the municipalities of San Pedro Mixtepec and San Jerónimo Coatlán respectively.
About 300 homes and at least 11 schools were damaged in the southern state as was the hospital in Tutupec, a municipality halfway between Puerto Escondido and Pinotepa Nacional.
At least nine rivers broke their banks, scores of trees fell, access to 47 Oaxaca municipalities was cut off and more than 800 people took refuge in shelters.
Federal transportation official Jaime López Carillo said that sections of three federal highways in Oaxaca collapsed due to heavy rain brought by Narda.
Federal Highway 200 was closed on Monday from the Guerrero border to Puerto Escondido due to landslides and flooding, while sections of the Oaxaca-Miahuatlán-Puerto Ángel highway and the road between Pinotepa Nacional and Putla de Guerrero were also impassable.
Oaxaca transportation official David Mayrén Carrasco said that 23 rural roads in the state had also closed.
In Guerrero, Narda caused the collapse of sections of several roads and highways, triggered landslides, damaged schools, felled hundreds of trees, cut power in parts of the state and flooded about 800 homes.
Acapulco Mayor Adela Román Ocampo said the city’s three water supply systems sustained rain damage and that residents could be without running water for two to three weeks.
The newspaper Milenio reported that at least eight towns in the municipalities of Juan R. Escudero and Tecoanapa remained cut off on Monday after the Omitlán river broke its banks and caused a 100-meter-long section of road leading to a bridge to collapse.
In Tixtla, a municipality just east of the state capital Chilpancingo, the entire drainage system collapsed after Narda dumped torrential rain. One person was reported missing in the area.
Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo asked federal authorities on Monday to declare a state of emergency in 28 municipalities in order to access funds to purchase food, water and other essential supplies.
Narda also caused damage in Michoacán, Jalisco, Colima and Nayarit.
The Colima-Manzanillo and Manzanillo-Barra de Navidad highways closed on Monday due to landslides, while at least 120 homes were damaged in Jalisco. Three people were rescued from a flooded creek in Nayarit while activities in the port of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, were temporarily suspended.
National Civil Protection authorities said that rain brought by Narda forced the closure on Monday of schools in 138 municipalities in six states: Guerrero, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Jalisco, Colima and Sinaloa.
The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the remnants of Narda were located 210 kilometers northwest of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, at 10:00am on Tuesday.
Maximum sustained winds had decreased to about 45 kilometers per hour and no coastal watches or warnings were in effect but rainfall is still likely across portions of northwestern Mexico, the NHC said.
Source: Expansión Política (sp), El Universal (sp), El Imparcial (sp), Informador (sp), Milenio (sp)
