Hurricane Katia roared onshore north of Tecolutla in Veracruz state, pelting the region with intense rains and winds just one day after Mexcio’s deadly earthquake. Since landfall, the storm has deteriorated into a soggy tropical depression that is dumping rain over the mountains of east-central Mexico.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm is now centered about 145 miles (235 kilometers) south of the Gulf coast city of Tampico in a mountainous region dotted with small towns. Katia made landfall Friday night as a hurricane.
The hurricane center says the storm is expected to bring 10 to 15 inches (25 to 37 centimeters of rain to the area, which has a history of deadly mudslides and flooding.
One-Two Punch.
One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Mexico and a raging hurricane dealt a devastating one-two punch to the country, killing at least 61 people as workers scrambled to respond to the twin national emergencies.
The 8.1 quake off the southern Pacific coast just before midnight Thursday toppled hundreds of buildings in several states. Hardest-hit was Juchitan, Oaxaca, where 36 people died and a third of the city’s homes collapsed or were otherwise rendered uninhabitable, President Enrique Pena Nieto said late Friday in an interview with the Televisa news network.
In downtown Juchitan, the remains of brick walls and clay tile roofs cluttered streets as families dragged mattresses onto sidewalks to spend a second anxious night sleeping outdoors. Some were newly homeless, while others feared further aftershocks could topple their cracked adobe dwellings.
