Hurricane "Grace": Eight dead after tropical storm in Mexico

Enlarge image

Tropical storm "Grace": people stand in front of their destroyed houses

Photo:

OSCAR MARTINEZ / REUTERS

The tropical storm "Grace" killed at least eight people in eastern Mexico. A woman and five children were killed in a landslide in the village of Banderilla, said the governor of the state of Veracruz, Cuitláhuac García Jiménez, on Saturday. A man was killed in Poza Rica and another child was killed in the collapse of a house in Xalapa. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed his condolences to the relatives. "You are not alone," he wrote on Twitter.

"Grace" hit the Mexican Gulf Coast as a hurricane and then quickly lost its power overland.

However, it caused heavy rain.

Civil defense reported landslides and floods in several states.

"We urge the population not to feel like a false sense of security," said Governor García.

"Even when the storm is over, the emergency is not over."

Half a million people without electricity

Trees were uprooted and streets flooded in nearly two dozen localities in Veracruz state.

The strong wind also overturned numerous electricity pylons.

More than half a million people were temporarily cut off from the power supply, said the utility company CFE.

Several flights to Veracruz, Tampico, Reynosa, Culiacan and Huatulco were canceled because of the storm.

In Mexico City, the authorities raised the alert.

Floods occurred in several parts of the city.

The city administration called on the population of the metropolis to be careful.

The second storm caused by »Grace«

"Grace" had hit Mexico twice: As a tropical storm, it first passed over the Yucatán Peninsula, which is popular with holidaymakers on Thursday.

There he caused property damage and extensive power outages.

The tropical cyclone then picked up speed again over the Gulf of Mexico and hit the east coast of the Latin American country as a hurricane.

kah / dpa