More than 100 people died as torrential rains pounded Mexico, causing rivers to burst their banks and sending tonnes of mud and rocks hurtling down mountainsides, officials said yesterday.
Authorities feared the toll could rise further as another 100 people were reported missing. In addition, an estimated 200,000 people had to flee their homes, many of which were damaged or entirely destroyed.
In the eastern state of Veracruz, where 14 deaths were reported, several hundred people stood atop their roofs awaiting rescue which did not come because pounding rain prevented helicopters from flying, and blocked roads made land access impossible.
The central state of Puebla was the worst hit, with 81 people reported dead and many more missing.
Authorities were preparing to evacuate some 15,000 people living around the Necaxa dam that appeared set to burst its banks, an official of the Puebla Civil Protection agency said.
In Tulancingo, 110 km north-east of Mexico City, as many as 20,000 people may have to be evacuated amid fears that a dam could break, officials said. Most of the city of 185,000 inhabitants was flooded, with water levels reaching up to two metres after the Tulancingo river burst its bank.
In the town itself, soldiers used boats to try to rescue people perched on their roofs. Several incidents of looting were reported in the panicked city as residents anticipated acute shortages of food and drinking water.
In the central state of Hidalgo, the rains, brought by a tropical depression, apparently caused the collapse of a quarry wall that killed seven people.
Three people died in Oaxaca, where bad weather was affecting relief efforts in the wake of last week's powerful earthquake that left 31 people dead in the southern state.
As Mexican authorities declared a state of emergency in Jalisco, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Puebla and Tabasco, Central American countries eased their alert levels following three weeks of devastating rains that killed 74 people.
Aid agencies have warned that the region now faced a food crisis, with an estimated 37,600 hectares (93,000 acres) of farmland affected in Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.