The death toll from tropical storm Earl has risen to 42 in Mexico, authorities said.
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Landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Earl’s remnants have killed at least 40 people in Mexico, officials said late Sunday, as a new storm threatened the country’s Pacific coast.
The weather phenomenon brought rainfalls in 13 of Mexico’s states, the heaviest in Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo, Oaxaca in the south, and San Luis Potosi in central Mexico.
The storm was moving northwest at 10 miles per hour (17 kph) and had maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (85 kph), unchanged from late on Sunday, according to the NHC.
WATCH: Follow the track of Tropical Storm Javier, below.
Javier, which could strengthen to hurricane status by Monday afternoon, was expected to bring heavy rains and high winds to southwestern Mexico in the coming days, United States weather forecasters said.
In June 2015, Hurricane Blanca had weakened to a tropical storm by the time it reached the Baja peninsula and caused no major damage.
Javier was moving northwest, on a path that could take it inland further up the peninsula on Tuesday or Wednesday. Javier was expected to begin a weakening trend Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities in Cabo San Lucas set up 10 storm shelters, mostly at local schools, and moved families from homes in low-lying areas near streams and gullies. The resort was closed to navigation, and some owners of smaller fishing boats could be seen pulling them onto shore and hauling them away on trailers.
Among the casualties of Earl were at least 32 people killed in multiple mudslides in the mountainous north of Puebla state, state Interior Secretary Diodoro Carrasco said.
The second worst is the situation in the coastal state of Veracruz where 11 people perished in mudslides, the newspaper said, adding that a total of 2,141 houses were affected in the state.
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“It is a tragedy what has happened to our people in Huauchinango”, Gabriel Alvarado, the township’s mayor. He said that an amount of rainfall equivalent to entire month of normal precipitation fell in one night in some areas.
