Death Toll from Hurricanes Simon and Rachel in Mexico Rises to Five, With Five More Missing
Mexico City — Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel, the twin storms GSM has tracked for days, produced their first confirmed death toll on Monday, October 12. Mexican authorities said on Monday that heavy rain and flooding brought by the two storms have killed five people, with five more missing.
The five dead came from two states. Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado confirmed at the president's daily press conference on Monday that, during Simon's passage, a 71-year-old man feeding livestock on the western outskirts of Chilpancingo was crushed by a rain-soaked retaining wall that collapsed. The Baja California state prosecutor's office reported that Rachel was blamed for the deaths of a family of four — including two children — whose bodies were found on the outskirts of Ensenada; the office also said security forces had rescued 32 people by helicopter.
The storms themselves are weakening. Simon never made landfall and, after dropping to a Category 2 hurricane, is moving away from the coast, but authorities are maintaining rain alerts, with waves of up to five meters still expected in some coastal areas; communities near rivers and ravines in Michoacán and Colima have already seen flooding and landslides.
This is the latest development in GSM's Simon series: reporting on October 10–11 stopped at 'Category 4 approaching — veering away along the coast, flooding in Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta airport shut,' with no casualties confirmed at the time; this report adds the first official death list (five people), the missing count (five) and the helicopter rescues (32). Readers should note that the figures are still preliminary — Al Jazeera earlier the same day reported 'at least two dead and at least 10 missing,' a timing difference from the figure of five cited by AFP from authorities later on Monday, which GSM adopts while noting the discrepancy.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 飓风卫星云图（资料图）。NASA，公共领域，维基共享资源
