News

Three dead as Hurricane Jova hits Mexico

At least three people have been killed and six injured after Hurricane Jova struck Mexico’s Pacific coast as a category two storm.


Jova came ashore west of the Mexican port of Manzanillo and the beach town of Barra de Navidad before dawn, bringing 100mph winds and heavy rains.


The storm weakened to a tropical depression as it moved inland, but continued to dump rain over a large swath of northwest Mexico, including Jalisco state where rainfall this year had been low.


Meanwhile, a tropical depression hit farther south with heavy rains contributing to 13 deaths across the border in Guatemala.


The new tropical depression formed in the Pacific near the Guatemala border, with maximum sustained winds near 35 mph, the US National Hurricane Centre reported.


The storm was smaller and less powerful than Jova, but the mountainous terrain of southern Mexico state of Chiapas and neighbouring Guatemala is particularly vulnerable to flash flooding and mudslides.


Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom blamed rain from the storm for the deaths of 13 people in the country. At least four of those were electrocuted when contacted power lines while others died in mudslides or were swept away by swollen rivers.


Picture by NASA Goddard/MODIS Rapid Response Team

Share article

View Comments

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.