Mexico devastated by earthquake and hurricane

A destroyed house in Union Hidalgo, Mexico.
A destroyed house in Union Hidalgo, Mexico.
90 are dead in the aftermath of an 8.1 earthquake and Hurricane Katia.

The death toll has risen to 90 in Mexico after the country was hit by an 8.1 earthquake on Thursday, followed by a powerful hurricane on Saturday.

The earthquake, which struck the Southern coast of Mexico near Chiapas, caused extreme damage across the region. Thousands of homes have been destroyed and damaged, with the Mexican interior ministry reporting 428 demolished in Chiapas alone.

Over 600 aftershocks rattled the country in the days following the initial quake, causing more than 1.8 million people to lose power and prompting Tsunami warnings. “We are all collapsed, our homes and our people,” says Juchitán resident Rosa Elba Ortiz Santiago. “We are used to earthquakes, but not of this magnitude.”

As the earthquake cleanup began, Hurricane Katia made landfall on the east coast in the early hours of Saturday morning. A category 1 storm, Katia brought winds of 120km/h and torrential rains. The hurricane halted rescue efforts and created a landslide in the city of Xalapa, killing two people.

Three days of national mourning have been declared by Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto in the wake of the two devastating natural disasters.

 

 

 

 

 

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