Loss of life toll from torrential rains in Mexico rises to 64 as search expands : NPR

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Felix Marquez/AP POZA RICA, Mexico — Fifteen minutes earlier than water from a flooded stream swept into her house, Lilia Ramírez took off working with what little she may carry. When she returned she discovered not solely harm from the water that had flooded her first ground to the ceiling, however the oil it had carried now streaking her partitions.

Poza Rica is an oil city, and among the many challenges confronting some residents who fled flooding that has killed 64 folks throughout 5 states and left 65 lacking, is residue from the oil that constructed this metropolis not removed from the Gulf of Mexico. Authorities say some 100,000 houses throughout the area have been broken by the torrential rains and flooding.

"By no means earlier than has it been tarred earlier than like that," Ramírez mentioned Monday standing in her devastated floor ground, the place partitions that had as soon as been pink had been now vertically striped with black.

Mexico has deployed some 10,000 troops along with civilian rescue groups. Helicopters have ferried meals and water to the 200 some communities that remained lower off by floor and carried out the sick and injured.

"There are enough sources, this may not be skimped on ... as a result of we're nonetheless within the emergency interval," President Claudia Sheinbaum mentioned throughout her every day press briefing Monday.

However on some streets in Poza Rica, 170 miles (275 kilometers) northeast of Mexico Metropolis, the cleanup of mud and particles was difficult by thick oil deposits on timber, roofs and autos tossed by the present that swept by Friday.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6750x4500+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2f%2F17%2F450c5ec346de81a2231f15048b3d%2Fap25286766181827.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6750x4500+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2f%2F17%2F450c5ec346de81a2231f15048b3d%2Fap25286766181827.jpg" class="img" alt="People clean the Olvera Gomez family's house in Poza Rica, Veracruz state, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, after torrential rains." loading="lazy"/> Folks clear the Olvera Gomez household's home in Poza Rica, Veracruz state, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, after torrential rains. Felix Marquez/AP cover caption

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Felix Marquez/AP Elements of Veracruz state acquired some 24.7 inches (62.7 centimeters) of rain from Oct. 6 to 9.

Ramírez mentioned that at different occasions of heavy rains, the state oil firm Pemex had drained close by areas with oil to keep away from it spreading.

Roberto Olvera, certainly one of her neighbors, mentioned {that a} siren from a close-by Pemex facility alerted them to hazard. "It was a very anguishing second as a result of lots of people from the neighborhood stayed behind and a few perished," he mentioned.

Pemex mentioned in a quick assertion to the AP that to date it didn't have experiences of an oil spill within the space.

Sheinbaum acknowledged it may nonetheless be days earlier than entry is established to some locations. "A number of flights are required to take enough meals and water" to these locations, she mentioned.

The president denied that authorities programs had failed to offer enough warning. "It will have been troublesome to have had a lot advance information of this example, (it is) totally different from with hurricanes," she mentioned.

Mexico's Civil Safety company mentioned the heavy rains had killed 29 folks in Veracruz state on the Gulf Coast as of Monday morning, and 21 folks in Hidalgo state, north of Mexico Metropolis. At the very least 13 had been killed in Puebla, east of Mexico Metropolis. Earlier, within the central state of Querétaro, a toddler died in a landslide.

Authorities have attributed the lethal downpours to 2 tropical programs that fashioned off the western coast of Mexico and have since dissipated, Hurricane Pricilla and Tropical Storm Raymond.