At least four people are known to have died after Hurricane 'Lorenzo' hit Mexico's central Gulf coast yesterday, flinging roofs and billboards through the air and causing landslides.
The storm brought steady rain to much of central Mexico. In Puebla state, a saturated hillside collapsed, killing a woman and two children. An 83-year-old man died in the town of Panuco in Veracruz after he fell into a hole in the drenched soil near his home, local police said.
Following roughly the same path as August's deadly Hurricane Dean, Lorenzo quickly weakened to a tropical depression as it charged inland, drenching Veracruz state's lush mountains and filling rivers with roaring water. The storm had dissipated by late last night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The storm battered a coastline populated with small fishing villages and beach hotels, knocking over electrical poles and leaving about 5,000 people in shelters scattered throughout the region.
In the farming town of San Rafael, residents scooped water out of flooded homes and tried to keep their belongings dry as a nearby river threatened to overflow its banks. Many had lost their banana, orange and lime crops to Hurricane Dean, and were still cleaning up from that storm when Lorenzo hit.
AP