Just one day after claiming over 20 lives in Mexico, Hurricane Ingrid weakened to a tropical storm. Ingrid made landfall in the state of Tamaulipas yesterday with winds up to 65mph, FOX News reports, and along with Tropical Storm Manuel, caused thousands to evacuate as flash floods and mudslides threatened towns on the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts.
Rising waters in the region brought out crocodiles, making it all the more difficult for rescue workers to come to the aide of residents across the region. Residents of Acapulco took shelter on top of cars and on the top floors of homes as floodwaters reached three feet high. At least 11 of the 21 confirmed deaths across the country occurred in the city of Acapulco, including a family of six who were crushed by a landslide. The city's international airport was closed down, as well as the highway linking Acapulco to Mexico City.
Late Sunday night, national civil protection chief, Luis Felipe Puente, said at a news conference that "at least 21" people were dead as a result of the storm's destruction, and today, Reuters reported that the number totaled 22 lives lost. Eleven people died in landslides and collapsed buildings in southern Guerrero state, and in the state of Puebla, three people, including a 16-year old boy, lost their lives after a wall collapsed and a current carried them away. In Hildago, a nurse and a driver drowned when their car was swept away by rising waters, and a man and child died in a landslide in the state capital of Chilpancingo.
According to National Weather Service coordinator, Juan Manuel Caballero, Mexico has not been hit by two consecutive tropical storms in the span of 24 hours since 1958, as Ingrid hit the country in the wake of twin Tropical Storm Manuel.
"As of right now, the storms have affected two-thirds of the entire national territory," Mexico's interior minister, Miguel Osorio Chong, said at a news conference in Mexico City, according to Reuters. He called the impact of the two storms "historic."
The National Hurricane Center predicts that Ingrid will weaken to a tropical depression later today as heavy rains continue to affect the region, with nearly 6,000 evacuees currently seeking shelter. Three offshore Pemex oil platforms, operated by British services firm Petrofac, were also forced to evacuate, and 24 wells offshore wells were forced to close as well.
