Hurricane Stan knocked down trees, ripped roofs off homes and washed out bridges in southeastern Mexico, but it was the storms it helped spawn that were far more destructive, killing more than 65 people in Central America.
The former category one hurricane was losing strength over the Mexican state of Oaxaca. But forecasters said Stan triggered separate storms further to the south and officials in El Salvador's capital said 49 people had been killed, mostly due to two days of mudslides caused by rain around the country.
More than 16,700 Salvadorans had fled their homes for 167 shelters nationwide.
PHOTO: EPA
"This is a national tragedy because of the rains," said Eduardo Rivera, a spokesman for a team of Salvadoran rescue officials. "There isn't a corner of the country where there isn't pain and destruction to be found."
Among those evacuated were residents of Santa Tecla, outside the capital, San Salvador, where a strong earthquake caused a massive landslide in January four years ago. Officials have worried the mountain running alongside the neighborhood might collapse again with heavy rains or another quake.
A 4.8-magnitude earthquake did shake the Pacific Ocean off the Salvadoran coast on Tuesday, but there were no reports of injuries or major damage.
Neighboring Honduras said it would send aid to this country and Mexico also offered financial assistance.
Heavy rains also brought flooding that damaged bridges and submerged highways elsewhere in Central America.
Nine people died in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadoreans killed in a boat wreck. Four deaths were reported in Honduras, three in Guatemala and one in Costa Rica.
In Mexico's Chiapas, wind and rain directly associated with Stan caused a river to break its banks and roar through the city of Tapachula, carrying homes of wood and metal with it and sparking hundreds of evacuations. Army and navy personnel joined state and local officials in helping residents flee to higher ground.
The city's center was littered with fallen branches and debris kicked up by flood waters and was virtually deserted on Tuesday night, as those not forced to evacuate holed up inside their homes.
Near Mexico's border with Guatemala, Tapachula was largely cut off from surrounding areas as major highways, roads and bridges were left under water. Chiapas Governor Pablo Salazar said four people were missing.
"Sadly, we know it's going to keep raining," Salazar said.
Hurricane Stan, which whipped up 130kph winds before being downgraded to a tropical depression, came ashore Tuesday morning along a sparsely populated stretch of coastline south of Veracruz, a busy port 295km east of Mexico City.
Its outer bands swiped the city, flooding low-lying neighborhoods and highways. Officials in Veracruz state, which includes the city of the same name, said seven people, including two children, were injured, most by falling trees or roofs that collapsed in the coastal towns of Alvarado and Montepio.
Schools around the state canceled classes and 38,000 people abandoned their homes, heading for shelters. Heavy rains also forced Veracruz's Mexican League soccer squad, the "Tiburones Rojos," or "Red Sharks," to scrap a scheduled practice.
All three of Mexico's Gulf coast crude-oil loading ports closed, but the shutdowns weren't expected to affect oil prices.
The crude-oil loading ports -- Coatzacoalcos, Dos Bocas and Cayo Arcas -- handle most of the 1.8 million barrels a day of crude oil exported by state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.
Five exploratory oil platforms also were evacuated on Monday, but so far the storm hadn't affected the company's production of 3.4 million barrels a day of crude oil, Mexico's Communications and Transportation Department said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including