Grace leaves at least 8 dead in Veracruz, Mexico, before degrading to a tropical storm

Grace left at least eight dead, including several minors, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, this Saturday when it made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane.

Among the victims are a

mother and her five children

- including a 15-day-old baby - who died when a landslide caused by the storm reached their home in the Loma Bonita neighborhood in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz.

The family was sleeping.

Also in Xalapa, another girl died when a hillside collapsed on her house.

In addition, an elderly person died on Friday night when a structure fell on him in the town of Poza Rica. 

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he regretted Grace's balance and asked to protect citizens in other states where Grace will pass this weekend.

Grace first hit the Yucatan peninsula this week as a category 1 hurricane, where residents and tourists had to shelter for hours in areas such as Tulum, a Mayan archaeological area.

The meteorological phenomenon then returned as a category 3 (more serious) hurricane towards Veracruz, a state further north on the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, as a tropical cyclone, Grace is heading through central Mexico, where the capital is, on the way to Tamaulipas, a state on the border with the United States.

The Mexico City International Airport reported that due to the passage of the hurricane, between Friday and Saturday several flights connecting Veracruz, Tampico, Reynosa, Culiacán, Huatulco and the city of Miami, in the United States, were canceled. 

In Veracruz, in addition to the human balance, there were destroyed houses and looted businesses. 

"We do feel very afraid, because

other times [a hurricane or storm] has hit, but not like it did this time

," María Elena Ordóñez told Noticias Telemundo.

The roof of his house collapsed. 

[The hurricane season this 2021 will have a "higher than normal" activity]

According to the governor of Veracruz, Cuitláhuac García Jiménez, the greatest impact of the hurricane occurred in the towns of Poza Rica, Cazones de Herrera and Tecolutla, where the winds reached a speed of 195 kilometers per hour (approximately 121 miles per hour).

"There we are going to focus the initial support that we will direct to the population," the governor said at a press conference shortly after noon (local time) on Saturday. 

Initially, the governor reported that three other people were missing, but shortly after the Ministry of Public Security reported that they were found alive by neighbors. 

Images show

 dark neighborhoods, trees on the ground and flooded streets

in towns like Tecolutla and Xalapa.

There are also reports of victims as a result of the destroyed houses. 

[Henri turns into a hurricane: the northeast on alert for this Sunday]

Grace is one of the most powerful storms to hit the Mexican Gulf Coast in years.

It recorded maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour (201 km per hour) and

caused power outages and structural damage.

Esteban Dominguez inspects what was left of his cafeteria on the beach of Costa Esmeralda, in Veracruz, after the passage of Hurricane Grace during the early morning of August 21, 2021. Yahir Ceballos / Reuters

The Secretary of Public Security of Veracruz, Hugo Gutiérrez Maldonado, assured that

the state remained on a red alert

 despite the fact that Grace had degraded by mid-morning on Saturday.

The secretary shared images of flooded streets in the city of Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz.

According to the correspondent of Noticias Telemundo Víctot Silva, 22 municipalities of Veracruz are in a state of emergency due to the damage caused by Grace.

The floods in Chihuahua by the Grace pass leave a fatality

Aug. 20, 202100: 24

[They detect a change in the Atlantic currents that can have catastrophic consequences on Earth]

With information from agencies