Acapulco, Mexico, Sep 24 (EFE).- Two people died, a sinkhole opened on a highway and hundreds of trees fell together along with electricity poles, while telephone lines failed following the passage of Hurricane John in southern Mexico, authorities said Tuesday.
The victims were a minor and a woman who were killed by a landslide in their home, while a sinkhole disrupted traffic on the Acapulco-Pinotepa Nacional highway due to the Category 3 cyclone that passed through the state of Guerrero.
Strong gusts swept hundreds of tin roofs off houses, while at least 100 palm trees collapsed on La Bocana beach, in the municipality of Marquelia, where the hurricane made landfall Monday night.
EFE verified that hundreds of electricity poles fell on the federal highway, causing power outages and mobile network disruptions.
Many fallen trees lay on the national highway that leads to Oaxaca, where emergency personnel were working to remove them and repair the sinkhole in the municipality of Cuauhtemoc.
Meanwhile, people in La Bocana beach said they had never experienced a similar hurricane, with some adding that they were not warned by municipal authorities in time.
Jose Luis Hernandez, a fisherman and tourist services provider, lost all his assets in the form of two businesses, a restaurant and a hut.
«What I experienced was a surprise, we never expected this storm, this hurricane, the truth is we were a little scared but thank God we are all fine at home, although I stayed up late and nothing happened, fortunately,» he said. «Everything was lost, everything, the roof, the house, everything flew away, we took care of ourselves from the blows and we took care of the children.»
Felipa Hernandez, another hurricane victim who lives with eight other people in her house, said they lost everything in a matter of hours, and said Monday night and early Tuesday morning were the worst days.
“Last night was very bad, you could hear the wind, the gusts, it was horrible; we thought the sea was rising, the light went out, the poles fell and it was chaos because we couldn’t get out,” she said.
She added that at one point she thought there would be a disaster on the beach after the hurricane, since there would be many people dead, especially for vulnerable residents such as elderly people, single mothers, pregnant women.
Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado said work began on repairing the road after the rains, reinstalling the electricity, as well as a census of affected people.
She said there were failed attempted robberies of department stores and self-service stores in Acapulco that were successfully prevented and that there were no serious incidents.
The cyclone was a surprise because authorities initially only predicted it would be a tropical storm that would degrade to a depression when it made landfall Wednesday. However, it intensified, accelerated and changed course Monday, when it became a Category 3 hurricane and hit the Costa Chica area of Guerrero.
The government deployed more than 18,000 armed forces agents and other agencies in the region.
The affected area was hit almost a year ago, on Oct. 25, by Hurricane Otis, which left more than 50 dead and broke the record for the strength of a cyclone in the Mexican Pacific.
John is the second cyclone of the Pacific season to make landfall in Mexico, where storm Ileana last week hit the state of Sinaloa, in the northwest of the country and caused minor damage.
Three cyclones have hit Mexico from the Atlantic: Hurricane Beryl and Storm Chris, which left no deaths in July, and Storm Alberto in June, which left six dead in Nuevo Leon, a state on Mexico’s northern border. EFE
sr/lds
