NATURAL DISASTERS IN MEXICO
NEWS ARTICLES
Floods, Landslides, Hurricanes, Storms Earthquakes
Floods
July 8, 2010
Nuevo Laredo - Reservoirs along the Texas-Mexico border rose to their highest levels in decades after
days of drenching rain, forcing officials to close two border bridges on Wednesday, dump water into
flooded rivers and evacuate tens of thousands of people from homes as a new storm headed toward the
region.
The dramatic rise of the Rio Grande caused by Hurricane Alex and continuing rains forced the closure of
one major border crossing between downtown Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and another
crossing known as the Colombia Bridge.
Officials evacuated the flood-threatened Vega Verde subdivision in Del Rio, Texas, some 180km
upstream from Laredo, while high waters in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila have already
damaged some 10 000 homes - many swamped in waist-deep water.
"That means there are 40 000 people who don't have any place to sleep," Governor Humberto Moreira
told the Televisa network on Wednesday.
To the southeast, Mexican officials evacuated nearly 18 000 people from houses in Ciudad Anahuac for
fear that water would overflow the Venustiano Carranza dam and threaten lives.
Mexico's National Water Commission said the dam currently had the largest emergency water release in
the country.
February 9, 2010
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More than 3,000 homes have been flooded in Valle de Chalco, a city on the eastern outskirts of the Mexico City metro area.
The death toll from heavy floods and mudslides in Mexico increased Tuesday to 41, a government
agency announced.
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Landslides
September 28, 2010 A tragedy in Oaxaca
A LANDSLIDE in the early hours of Tuesday morning may have killed hundreds of people in Mexico’s
southern state of Oaxaca, according to early reports. As many as 300 houses were buried in the town of
Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, according to state officials. The death toll could be as high as 1,000—a tenth
of the town’s population.
The landslide is said to have been caused by heavy rains, which soaked a 200m-wide section of
mountainside above the town. At roughly four in the morning on Tuesday, the sodden cliffside crashed
down onto the town, burying residents as they slept. Rescue efforts will be hampered by the same heavy
rains, which have rendered some roads in the remote region impassable.
This year’s rainy season has been particularly heavy, causing widespread flooding in Mexico and parts of
Central America. Storms off the Caribbean have whipped up more rainfall: in July Hurricane Alex brought
devastating floods to the northern city of Monterrey. Earlier this month some 16,000 residents of the state
of Veracruz were forced to evacuate their homes because of flooding caused by Hurricane Karl. In the
same state, flood-waters inundated a crocodile-breeding centre, allowing some of the reptiles to escape
their cages (though they remained trapped in a nature reserve, according to officials). Tropical Storm
Matthew has worsened the rains in Oaxaca in recent days. Overall, floods have displaced around
250,000 Mexicans in 2010.
Hurricanes
Hurricane season lasts from June until November, though most hurricanes occur between August and
October. Hurricanes and tropical storms in Mexico can affect weather on the Caribbean coast of the
Yucatan Peninsula, the Gulf Coast, and the Pacific coast.
October 12, 2010 – Hurricane Paula
Hurricane Paula is gaining strength as it is heading towards Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The hurricane
intensified to a category-two storm with winds of up to 160km/h (100 mph), forecasters at the US National
Hurricane Center said. October 13, 2010 Category 2 Hurricane Paula passed 60 miles east of the resort
town of Cancun, Mexico this morning, packing maximum sustained winds of 100 mph, according to
catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide. With hurricane force winds extending only 15 miles outward
from the center, Paula did not bring damaging winds to the hotel-lined Yucatan coast. In Cancun,
maximum recorded winds were below tropical storm strength.
September 16, 2010 Hurricane Karl
Fishermen try to secure their boats as tropical storm Karl
arrives in the town of Mahahual, Mexico, on Wednesday. (Associated Press/Israel Leal)
Karl has become a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Thursday
in issuing a warning. The hurricane warning is for Mexico's coast from Palma Sola to Cabo Rojo. Also, a
tropical storm warning has been issued for the coast for north of Cabo Rojo to La Cruz and for the area
south of Palma Sola to Veracruz. Karl's maximum sustained winds are near 120 km/h and the centre said
additional strengthening is possible. Karl is located about 500 kilometres east-southeast of Tuxpan,
Mexico, and is moving west near 19 km/h.The storm could bring torrential downpours of as much as 380
mm in mountainous areas. The hurricane centre said those rains could cause life-threatening floods and
mudslides.Outside the mountains, as much as 250 mm of rain is possible.
October 25, 2005
Hurricane Wilma left the north-eastern tip of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula yesterday after inflicting two
days of punishing storms that devastated the area's tourist resorts and badly damaged the homes of
hundreds of thousands of local people.
But despite the destructive power of the storm, the human cost appears relatively limited: tens of
thousands of tourists and local residents kept safe in shelters, and initial reports put the death toll in
Mexico at eight. Last week Wilma killed 13 people in Haiti and Jamaica.
Continuing on its way yesterday, Wilma was expected to skirt Cuba's western tip and hit Florida's southwest coast early today. In its wake, the storm left widespread flooding with felled trees, power lines and
street signs blocking roads, and roofless and mangled petrol stations.
In the resort city of Cancún, the beachfront strip of hotel complexes was left completely under water, shop
fronts disappeared and cars were submerged.
"It looks like a giant passed by kicking the entire city. Cancún is destroyed," vice-admiral Martín
Fernández told El Universal newspaper, after a trip to the affected area.
Meanwhile, the 22nd named tropical storm of the Atlantic season formed over the weekend, breaking the
record set in 1933. With all the pre-assigned storm names for this year used up, storm-namers have
resorted to the Greek alphabet. Tropical storm Alpha struck the island of Hispaniola yesterday raising
fears of mudslides and floods in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Storms
September 22, 2010
A new tropical storm compounded Mexico's misery on Tuesday, drenching the Baja peninsula as the
country tallied its dead and struggled to care for one million people affected by Hurricane Karl and historic
flooding.
Pacific Tropical Storm Georgette drenched the resort town of Cabo San Lucas at Baja California's
southern tip, lashing the region with sustained winds of 65 kilometres per hour.
"We have already evacuated around 1000 families" from areas vulnerable to flooding and storm surges,
said Jose Gajon, director of Civil Defense for Baja California Sur state.
Across the country to the east, the toll from the powerful hurricane which struck last Friday, mainly in
Veracruz state along the Gulf of Mexico coast, rose to 22 dead as emergency crews searched many of
the hundreds of towns and villages inundated by heavy rains and flooding and struggled to reach more
remote communities.
Earthquakes
October 21, 2010 Gulf of Mexico
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A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Mexico's Gulf of California on Thursday, the U.S. Geological
Survey reported. The quake, which registered at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers), was
centered between southern Baja California and the Mexican state of Sinaloa, about 65 miles from
the city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa, the USGS said. There were no immediate reports of major
damage, though residents in the area were shaken up.
June 30, 2010
A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck southern Mexico early on Wednesday, leaving one man dead
and shaking buildings as far away as Mexico City but sparing infrastructure from serious damage.
April 5, 2010 7.2 Earthquake Jolts California-Mexico Border
Officials Blame 2 Deaths on Powerful Temblor in Mexico, Felt by Millions from Los Angeles to Arizona
Play CBS Video
The most powerful earthquake to hit the border region in 18 years had people from Mexico and California
running from their houses. As Bill Whitaker reports, the quake The quake was actually more powerful than
the one that hit Haiti, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker - but the damage is far less because
Mexicali and surrounding communities are spread out with no dense urban center, the terrain is flat, and
the building codes, even an underdeveloped part of Mexico, are much more stringent.
Aftershocks rattled the southwest Mexico-U.S. border on Monday morning in the aftermath of a major
earthquake that killed two people, blacked out cities and forced the evacuation of hospitals and nursing
homes. Sunday's 7.2-magnitude quake, centred just south of the U.S. border near Mexicali, was one of
the strongest earthquakes to hit region in decades, shaking at least 20 million people. It had a shallow
depth of 6 miles (10 kilometres). But the human toll was minimal in large part because the energy from
the quake moved northwest of Mexicali toward a less populated area, said Jessica Sigala, a geophysicist
from the U.S. Geological Survey.
September 19, 1985 8.0 Magnitdue in Michoacan, Mexico
The 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake that struck Mexico on 19 September 1985
in the morning at 7:19 local time, At least 9,500 people were killed, about 30,000 were injured, more than
100,000 people were left homeless, and severe damage was caused in parts of Mexico City and in
several states of central Mexico. According to some sources, the death toll from this earthquake may be
as high as 35,000. It is estimated that the quake seriously affected an area of approximately 825,000
square kilometers, caused between 3 and 4 billion U.S. dollars of damage, and was felt by almost 20
million people. Four hundred twelve buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in
Mexico City. About 60 percent of the buildings were destroyed at Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco. Damage also
occurred in the states of Colima, Guerrero, Mexico, Michoacan, Morelos, parts of Veracruz and in other
areas of Jalisco.
The complete seismic event consisted of four quakes. A pre-event quake of magnitude 5.2 occurred on
28 May 1985. The main and most powerful shock occurred 19 September, followed by two aftershocks:
one on 20 September 1985 of magnitude 7.5 and the fourth occurring seven months later on
30 April 1986 of magnitude 7.0. The quakes were located off the Mexican Pacific coast, more than
350 km away, but due to strength of the quake and the fact that Mexico City sits on an old lakebed,
Mexico City suffered major damage. The event caused between three and four billion USD in damage as
412 buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in the city. While the number is in
dispute, the most-often cited number of deaths is about an estimated 10,000 people.
Landslides and tsunamis were also caused by this earthquake.
Apartment Complex Pino Suárez, 1985 Mexico City earthquake