Four people are dead and five were still missing on Monday after a series of mudslides near the México state town of Jilotzingo on Friday night.
Heavy rains caused the inhabited hilltop known as La Peña to come apart, with several houses and large sections of mud thundering down into the San Luis Ayucan neighborhood of Jilotzingo, about 50 km northwest of Mexico City.
Eight houses were destroyed, according to the México state Civil Protection agency.
Emergency responders were quickly on the scene after the first mudslide but other mudslides occurred over the weekend. In addition, sections of the town were under water after a nearby river surged over its banks.
“There have been several mudslides in the municipality,” a Civil Protection official told the newspaper El Universal,” but we are focusing on ground zero where we continue to carry out search and rescue operations.”
Though authorities admitted that finding survivors was less and less likely after three days, they were determined to recover the bodies of all the victims.
On Saturday, three people were rescued and transported to the Lomas Verdes Hospital in nearby Naucalpan. The survivors were described as a 12-year-old boy, a 10-year-old girl and a 34-year-old woman.
The online news site Infobae reported that the rescue occurred after 11 hours of intense labor and the combined effort of state and local authorities, the Army, the Navy, the National Guard and rescue dogs.
Jilotzingo Mayor Ana Teresa Casas González urged local residents to remain indoors. She also asked non-residents to stay away.
“We call upon the general public to avoid driving through San Luis Ayucan since it is the area most directly affected,” she said, according to Infobae. “And [residents] should remain indoors while the authorities evaluate the situation.”
In conjunction with the state Civil Protection authorities, Jilotzingo officials sent emergency personnel into the neighborhood and surrounding areas to check in on the residents. Clean-up crews were also onsite Monday and geologists were examining the surrounding hillsides to determine if evacuation was necessary.
México state Governor Delfina Gómez had been in contact with local authorities to provide all necessary assistance, briefly visiting the site on Saturday.
Gómez is still dealing with criticism after her government’s delayed response to severe sewage flooding in the city of Chalco, on the opposite side of Mexico City.
Two weeks passed before Gómez visited Chalco on Aug. 15, and a month later many streets remain inundated with stagnant, contaminated water. The TV news program Telediario México reported Monday that some progress had been made as the dank waters had been drained away in two Chalco neighborhoods such that a few businesses were opening their doors again.
With reports from Infobae, El Universal, Telediario México and N+
:O