One dead, several missing as Tropical Storm Nora crushes Mexico

Tropical Storm Nora continues to lash Mexico’s Pacific coast with torrential rains and heavy winds, a day after causing floods and landslides that killed at least one person in a popular resort town.

Communities in the coastal states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco experienced heavy rain and rough surf on Sunday as the storm moved northward hugging the shoreline.

The Jalisco state government said a teenager from Spain died on Saturday night when a hotel partially collapsed in the town of Puerto Vallarta amid severe flooding when Nora passed by the tourist city as a Category 1 hurricane.

The rest of his family escaped before the collapse, authorities said.

“This tragedy was caused by the partial collapse of a hotel in downtown Puerto Vallarta, due to the overflow of the Cuale River,” said Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro. “To his family, who came to our port from Spain seven years ago, and to his loved ones, all our support and our deepest condolences. RIP.”

A woman was also missing there after her car was swept away. Officials said flooding damaged 500 homes and two people were injured in a landslide.

Six fishermen from the state of Guerrero were listed as missing at sea.

Nora was downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale to a tropical storm on Sunday afternoon, after its maximum sustained winds fell to 70 miles per hour (110km/h).

The storm was about 105 miles (165km) northeast of the city of Mazatlan on Sunday evening and moving north-north west at 12mph (19km/h), according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC). It was blowing at 60mph (96km/h) with higher gusts.

“Gradual weakening is forecast during the couple of days as the centre moves roughly parallel to the coast of Mexico,” the NHC said. “However, rapid weakening will likely occur if the centre moves inland sooner than forecast.”

The NHC said Nora will likely produce additional heavy rainfall along the west coast of Mexico from the states of Jalisco to Sonora through late week.

It could also produce life-threatening flash flooding and mud slides, as well as storm surge and large waves.

Last week, Hurricane Grace killed eight people after it hit Veracruz.

Source: News Agencies