More than 40 dead, many missing amid heavy rain in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Severe storms have left a trail of destruction across Mexico, with at least 44 people reported dead and an unknown number of missing following intense rainfall, authorities said on Saturday.

Many communities, especially in mountainous regions, remained cut off due to avalanches or high water levels and aid workers were struggling to reach them.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum traveled to the disaster area on Sunday to assess the extent of the destruction. She met victims and first responders in the community of Huachinango, one of the worst affected in the state of Puebla.

“Today, weather conditions are allowing for faster progress and air transport to communities that are still isolated,” she wrote on X.

Around 10,000 soldiers have been deployed to rescue stranded residents and deliver food to affected communities.

They were clearing roads, rescuing people from flooded communities and providing them with food. Thousands have been taken to emergency shelters. Rescuers were still trying to reach several villages that have been inaccessible until now.

Meteorologists have warned that further rainfall is expected. With the soil already saturated, the risk of additional landslides is rising.

The hardest-hit areas are in the eastern and central states of Veracruz, Hidalgo, Puebla, Querétaro and San Luis Potosí. Tens of thousands of homes, clinics, schools, roads and bridges have been damaged.

Most fatalities so far have been reported in Veracruz and Hidalgo, while deaths have also been confirmed in Puebla and Querétaro. San Luis Potosí suffered widespread damage but no casualties.

Mexico is at the end of its rainy season, which lasts about six months and usually ends in early November.

The heavy rainfall of recent days is partly due to the tropical cyclones Priscilla and Raymond in the Pacific, as well as weather phenomena in the Gulf of Mexico.

In Puebla, a Bengal tiger escaped from a zoo near the municipality of Xicotepec during the floods. Initial reports said the animal had been found, but its condition was unclear.

The tiger was later confirmed dead, trapped under debris carried by the floodwaters, the environmental agency Profepa said.