The Puebla government said one town received a month’s worth of rain in just 24 hours, and in one area, a hill swept down on an adjacent village, killing almost a dozen residents. Officials said a whole hill collapsed near the town and swept down on a nearby village.
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Officials in the central state of Puebla also reported at least one death in a landslide in the mountain town of Xaltepec.
Eleven people have died in Veracruz, buried in landslides after intense rainfall and flooding struck the Gulf coast state after Earl crossed the Yucatan peninsula.
A mudslide damaged houses in the Mexican town of Huauchinango in Puebla state on August 7, 2016.
In June 2015, Hurricane Blanca had weakened to a tropical storm by the time it reached the Baja peninsula and caused no major damage.
By late Sunday Moreno Valle warned that the death toll could rise.
Luis Felipe Puente, head of national emergency services, said on Sunday that 28 people were killed in Puebla state and another 10 died in neighbouring Veracruz state.
Communities in two states were digging out from weekend mudslides during heavy rains brought by remnants of Earl, which hit Mexico’s Gulf coast as a tropical storm.
In Veracruz, “We continue to monitor rivers that are above critical levels”, Duarte said in another Twitter post.
Javier had sustained winds of about 45 mph (75 kph) and was located about 55 miles (90 kilometers) west-southwest of Manzanillo.
Javier was moving northwest at about 9 miles per hour (15 kph) on a path that could brush land around Puerto San Carlos, farther up the peninsula, on Wednesday and again around Laguna San Ignacio later in the week.
The storm stayed offshore from Mexico’s southwestern coast, and forecasters said it would approach the resort-dotted southern portion of the Baja California Peninsula by early Tuesday.
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Tropical Storm Javier is expected to become a hurricane within the next day, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
