Mexican soldiers dig through mud in search for landslide victims

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/mexican-soldiers-mud-landslide-flooding

Version 0 of 1.

Mexican soldiers are digging through tonnes of mud and dirt in the continuing search for landslide victims, as authorities looked for a federal police helicopter that went missing while carrying out relief operations on the flood-stricken Pacific coast.

An army captain who was not authorised to be quoted by name said military and civilian authorities were still looking for the helicopter a day after it was reported missing. The officer had no further information on how many people were on board the craft, or where it was when it was last heard from.

Search efforts continued in the remote mountain village of La Pintada, north of Acapulco, where 68 people were reported missing following Monday's landslide. Two bodies have been recovered.

Federal police have been helping move emergency supplies and bring aid to victims of massive flooding caused by tropical storm Manuel.

At a shelter in Acapulco, survivors of the landslide told how rain had fallen all day because of the tropical storm off the coast, so far more people than usual had stayed at home. Many were cooking for the Independence Day celebrations in La Pintada's cobblestoned square.

They said a tidal wave of dirt, rocks and trees had exploded off the hill above the village, sweeping through the centre of town, burying families in their homes and sweeping wooden houses into the swollen river that winds past La Pintada on its way to the Pacific.

"Everyone who could ran into the coffee fields. It smothered the homes and sent them into the river. Half the homes in town were smothered and buried," said Marta Alvarez, a 22-year-old homemaker who was cooking with her two-year-old son, two brothers and parents when the landslide erupted.

La Pintada was the scene of the single greatest tragedy in the twin paths of destruction wreaked by Manuel and hurricane Ingrid, which simultaneously pounded both of Mexico's coasts over the weekend, spawning huge floods and landslides across hundreds of miles of coastal and inland areas.

Manuel later gained hurricane force and rolled into the northern state of Sinaloa on Thursday morning before weakening over land. By Thursday night it had degenerated into an area of low pressure over the western Sierra Madre mountains, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Three people were reported dead in Sinaloa: a fisherman swept from his boat, a small boy who fell into a ditch and a young man whose vehicle was swept away in a rain-swollen stream.

The death toll from the weekend storms stood at 97 but was certain to rise because the figure did not include the missing in La Pintada, where several entire families were wiped out by the landslide.

All the main arteries to Acapulco remained closed on Thursday, including the Highway of the Sun, a four-lane expressway that links Acapulco to Mexico City. The president, Enrique Peña Nieto, said he was cancelling a trip to New York for the annual UN general assembly because of the emergency.

Officials promised to re-open the highway by Friday.

Federal officials set up donation centres for storm aid on Thursday, but they faced stiff questioning about why, instead of warning people more energetically about the oncoming storms, they focused on independence celebrations and a military parade that kept dozens of aircraft and emergency vehicles in Mexico City, instead of the states where they were most needed.

Cargo ships were contracted to supply food to Acapulco by sea, but in many of the city's main tourist areas life appeared to go on as normal, with shortages of lettuce and tomatoes the only evidence of the disaster.

The situation was far worse in the city's poorer neighbourhoods, and at an air base on the outskirts of Acapulco hundreds of stranded tourists remained lined up for a third day on Thursday to get seats on military aircraft that were slowly ferrying people out of the resort.

Mexican officials said more than 15,237 people had been flown out of the city on more than 100 flights by Thursday evening, out of the 40,000 to 60,000 tourists estimated to be stranded in the city.

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.