At least 13 people have been killed by a
tornado that hit the northern Mexico border city of Ciudad Acuna.
Hundreds of homes have
been damaged or destroyed in the city, in Coahuila state, just across the
border from Del Rio, Texas.
The US state has had
big floods, with at least three dead and 12 missing.
Images from Mexico
showed cars and buildings badly damaged. Many people have been injured and
there are fears the death toll could rise.
Coahuila Governor Ruben Moreira, on a visit to the stricken area, said 10 adults and three children had died and a baby was missing. Another 150 people had been taken to hospital, he said.
The authorities say
that more than 1,000 homes have been damaged by the storm.
At one point the
tornado reached a speed of 270-300km/h (168-186mph). Most of those who died
were walking on the street when it struck, officials said.
The missing baby's
child carrier was ripped from its mother's hands by a sudden gust of wind,
Coahuila state Interior Secretary Victor Zamora told the AP news agency.
Ciudad Acuna Mayor
Evaristo Lenin Perez said that it was the first tornado to hit Acuna since the
city's foundation, more than 100 years ago.
Rescuers were
searching the 750 damaged properties for more casualties.
"There are cars
on top of houses, there are dead people lying in the street, it is total
chaos," said local resident Maria del Rosario Ramirez, quoted by Mexican
newspaper La Jornada.
The BBC's Katy Watson in Mexico
The tornado only
lasted a short moment but that was enough to devastate a community. It struck
at a busy time in the morning - people were driving or taking public transport
to work. Cars were catapulted towards buildings, roofs ripped off and many
vehicles left upended.
Residents of Ciudad
Acuna are used to hearing about this sort of thing north of the border in
Texas, not experiencing this first-hand. The infrastructure clearly wasn't
strong enough to stand up to the impact - the army is helping to search for
missing people and neighbouring states have also said they will lend a hand in
the rescue effort.
Mexican President
Enrique Pena Nieto expressed his "solidarity" with the relatives of
the victims, and later travelled to some of the areas affected by the storm.
He said the government
would "take stock of the damage and provide all appropriate support".
Victor Zamora,
Coahuila's interior secretary, said an area of about seven blocks had been
"devastated" by the tornado, which struck at about 06:10 (11:10 GMT).
Civil protection
officials said that eight temporary shelters had been set up for those made
homeless by the disaster.
'Tsunami-like power'
In the southern US,
warnings and alerts stretched from Colorado through to Arkansas, Louisiana,
Missouri and eastern Kansas.
Twelve people were
missing after flash floods struck the Blanco river in central Texas on Sunday.
Texas governor Greg
Abbott said it was the worst flooding the state had seen, and that the wave of
water had a "tsunami-like" power.
He has declared a
state of disaster in 24 counties of the state.
In the city of San
Marcos, residents were forced to evacuate as the flood waters rose after
torrential rain that turned streets into fast-flowing rivers, with cars and
trucks under water and people using inflatable lounge chairs to make their way
down the street.
The floods damaged
hundreds of homes, some of them swept off their foundations.
At least three deaths
have been linked to the flooding in Texas since Saturday, the latest being a
14-year-old boy who was found with his dog in a storm drain in Dallas. Three
people are reported to have died in Oklahoma.
A tornado also damaged
a block of flats in Houston over the weekend.
Are you in the region? Have you been affected by the tornado? You
can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments...