Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Storm Again Hits Mexico; Three Killed, Hundreds Flee

Associated Press

Dolly slammed into Mexico again with heavy rain and 80-mph winds Friday, killing at least three people and forcing hundreds on the Gulf Coast to flee their flooded homes.

Dolly weakened from a hurricane to a tropical depression as it moved inland, but still carried torrential rain that threatened to cause more damaging floods. It was Mexico’s second run-in with Dolly, which rolled across sparsely populated areas of the Yucatan peninsula on Tuesday.

One person died in Tamaulipas state and two more drowned in neighboring Nuevo Leon state, where heavy rain set off floods. By nightfall, Dolly had fizzled and was on its way to Aguascalientes state near the west coast.

Streets in the port city of Tampico were littered with snapped trees, downed utility poles and flapping billboards after Dolly passed through Friday. Flooding made roads some impassable.

In one fishing neighborhood on the banks of the Tamesi River, people trudged through muddy streets carrying mattresses, bedding and plastic-wrapped televisions.

A 40-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on her roof in Pueblo Viejo on the outskirts of Tampico, the Red Cross said. Forty-two other people in the area were injured, two of them seriously.

Two people drowned in a river outside Monterrey.

About 1,500 people were evacuated from their shanties in Tampico and neighboring Ciudad Madero, but most had returned to their homes by midafternoon. More than 450,000 people live in the communities, about 240 miles south of Brownsville, Texas.