The hurricane agathathe first of the season in the Pacific, has already been collected at least 10 deaths in Mexico, where other 20 people are still missingas reported on Tuesday by Alejandro Murat, governor of the state of Oaxaca, where the cyclone made landfall with force on Monday.
“Unfortunately, we have 10 people dead and 20 people missing, most of them are in the upper part, the mountain area, this is preliminary,” Murat told the TeleFómula television channel, citing reports from local authorities.
In addition, he explained that the main causes of deaths and disappearances were the flooding of the rivers, which overflowed, and the landslides in the highlands.
According to the head of local government, in the municipality of Santiago Xanica, located about 65 kilometers from the coast, 6 dead and 10 missing were reported due to the overflow of the Copalita River. Two other people remain unaccounted for in two communities.
In the early hours of this Tuesday, the authorities had reported at least four dead and four missing in Mexican territory after the onslaught of Cyclone Agatha, which before weakening left damage in the southern state of Oaxaca, one of the poorest areas of the country.
Adelfo Regino, head of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), reported the deaths of two people in the Xanaguia community due to a landslide in the mountains, while the Oaxaca Civil Protection Coordination confirmed to local media the death of a woman in San Mateo Piñas.
These deaths are added to the discovery of the body of a man who was reported missing in Huatulco, where the storm pushed him into a river.
“After the passage of Hurricane Agatha there pain, desolation and serious affectationsparticularly in the Sierra Sur de Oaxaca,” lamented Regino, originally from the area, on his official networks.
Satellite image of Hurricane Agatha. Photo RAMMB/NOAA/AFP
They had described Hurricane Agatha as “dangerous”
Cyclone Agatha, the first of the 2022 season in the Pacific Ocean, degraded this Tuesday to a remaining low pressure as it lost power as it passed through southern Mexico, according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN) in a notice, the last before the loss of strength of the phenomenon.
Previously, the Government of Mexico had classified Agatha as a hurricane “dangerous”for which it placed 75 municipalities in Oaxaca on maximum alert and 294 municipalities in Oaxaca and Chiapas, states in the south of the country with a high indigenous population, on orange alert, due to high danger.
The SMN predicted that Agatha would make landfall as a category 3 hurricane, although in the end impacted this Monday in category 2.
Upon making landfall, the cyclone caused winds of 140 to 170 kilometers per hour and waves of six to eight meters high on the coast of Oaxaca, with gusts of 90 to 110 kilometers per hour with waves of four to six meters high on the coast of Chiapas and Guerrero.
Although it has already weakened, the SMN warned that Agatha still “causes intense rains at torrential points that could generate an increase in the levels of rivers and streams, landslides and floods in low-lying areas of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo ” .
At least 10 people died in Mexico from Hurricane Agatha and another 20 are still missing. Photo Jose de Jesus Cortes/Reuters
Six municipalities in “extraordinary emergency”
After the impact of the cyclone, the National Civil Protection Coordination (CNPC) issued a “Declaration of extraordinary emergency” in six municipalities of the state of Oaxaca.
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) reported more than 70,000 affected users in Oaxaca and Veracruz.
But the total count of the damage will take days due to the complexities of the area, characterized by having remote communities, located in the mountains and with a high proportion of indigenous population.
“As the effects of Cyclone Agatha diminish, the institutions that provide support to the population began to implement coordinated strategies to deal with emergency situations caused by rains and winds,” said the National Water Commission (Conagua). .
Even President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had ruled out in the morning that there were major damages.
“I have information that fortunately the cyclone, hurricane, is losing strengthSo far we haven’t had any major damage. The entire federal government, the state governments, are participating,” she explained in her morning press conference.
It will be an “active season” of tropical phenomena
Agatha’s arrival marked the beginning of a “active season” of tropical phenomenaas anticipated by the SMN.
In fact, the remnants of this cyclone may become the first tropical storm this year in the Atlantic, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported on Tuesday.
The Mexican meteorological forecast on May 17 the formation of up to 40 named tropical phenomena by 2022of which at least five will impact the country, both in the Pacific and the Atlantic.
In the case of the Pacific, they said that 8 to 10 tropical storms are expected, 4 to 5 category 1 and 2 hurricanes, and from 2 to 4 hurricanes categories 3, 4 and 5.
Meanwhile, for the Atlantic, 16 to 21 systems are expected: 10 to 11 tropical storms, 4 to 6 category 1 and 2 hurricanes, and from 2 to 4 categories 3, 4 and 5.
With information from EFE
DB