Mexico: At least two dead as a result of tropical storm Roslin

Two people have so far lost their lives, since yesterday’s passage of tropical storm Roslin, in northwestern Mexico, while causing damage to houses and the road network.

“We found that a man died in Rosamorada,” Jorge Benito Rodríguez, a public security official in Nayarit state, told Mexican television. According to the first information from the authorities, it was a 39-year-old woman.

Authorities later said a 75-year-old man died when he was crushed by part of the roof of his home on Mescaltitan Island.

At 03:00 (Greece time), Roslyn was located 95 kilometers from the city of Torreon (north), with sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour. It was expected to dissipate completely within a few hours, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

On Friday, the phenomenon strengthened to a category 4 typhoon in a short period of time, causing alarm to the authorities and residents of the states of Nayarit and Jalisco.

Any such event exceeding Category 3 on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale is considered “major,” potentially catastrophic. It was the first time that a phenomenon of this category was recorded in this year’s season of hurricanes and cyclones.

It arrived yesterday around 14:20 (Greece time) over land near Santa Cruz (Nayarit), where 1,200 people live, mostly fishermen and farmers.

Material damage, some relatively limited flooding, tree falls and landslides were recorded by the Civil Protection in the states of Nayarit and Jalisco, which were mainly affected by the phenomenon.

Flooding “is not such a big risk”, the director of Civil Protection in Nayarit, Pedro Nunez, had judged earlier.

The coastal resort of Puerto Vallarta (Jalisco state), which has 220,000 residents and is one of the largest cities in the area hit by Roslin, began taking stock of the damage.

Discharge

“It was a bit scary. The water started entering our house, we had to take our children and go to a place with higher altitude. We were under the rain for about three hours, the house was destroyed,” said Eric Newcomer, an American who settled in Puerto Vallarta three months ago.

In Sayulita, Nayarit state, some areas were affected when a small river overflowed, flooding and even burying houses under mud.

More than a thousand residents in high-risk areas left their homes and went to shelters or were hosted by relatives, while all commercial activities were suspended from noon.

Tropical storms, cyclones and hurricanes hit Mexico every year, especially along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Generally, they are recorded in the period from May to November.

At the end of May Agatha, the first storm of the season in the Pacific, hit coastal areas in the state of Oaxaca (south), where heavy rains in mountain towns killed 11 people.

In October 1997 Polina, a Category 4 hurricane, wreaked widespread destruction on the southern Mexican Pacific coast, killing over 200 people.

RES-EMP

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