MEXICO: HURRICANE PAULINE LEAVES AS MANY AS 400 DEAD

Record ID: 249984

  • Title: MEXICO: HURRICANE PAULINE LEAVES AS MANY AS 400 DEAD
  • Date: 12th October 1997
  • Summary: ACAPULCO, MEXICO (OCTOBER 12, 1997)(RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV/LV OF RESCUE WORKERS SEARCHING (2 SHOTS) 0.17 2. SV HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE CONVERGED AT SITE WHERE CHURCH ONCE STOOD TO PARTICIPATE IN SPECIAL MASS FOR VICTIMS OF HURRICANE 0.25 3. CU WOMAN CRYING DURING OUTDOOR SERVICE 0.33 4. SV PRIEST SPEAKING DURING SERVICE (SPANISH) 0.52 5. SLV/MCU PEOPLE AT OUTDOOR SERVICE (3 SHOTS) 1.09 6. TV PEOPLE AT OUTDOOR SERVICE 1.16 7. SV OF AID WORKERS DISTRIBUTING FOOD AND SUPPLIES TO HURRICANE VICTIMS (2 SHOTS) 1.29 8. TV OF PEOPLE RECIEVING AID 1.37 9. CU SUPPLIES 1.42 10.SV PEOPLE RECEIVING AID (4 SHOTS) 2.16 11.SLV RESCUE WORKERS SEARCHING AREA/PEOPLE LOOKING ON (2 SHOTS) 2.24 12.SLV RESCUE WORKERS SEARCHING AREA WITH DOG (3 SHOTS) 2.41 Initials P3/2 S3/2 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 27th October 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ACAPULCO, MEXICO
  • City:
  • Country: Mexico LATIN AMERICA
  • Reuters ID: LVA68WXM6UHCIDWMZ0WX6C3ZJ1V1
  • Story Text: People on Mexico's west coast are continuing to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Pauline's devastating hit left as many as 400 dead.

    Hurricane Pauline lashed Mexico's west coast last week, leaving hundreds dead and 20,000 homeless Sunday (October 12).

    Mexico's most destructive hurricane in nine years on Thursday left a trail of crumbled buildings and washed-out roads.

    There was a big discrepancy between the official and unofficial death tolls. Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet said there were 136 dead in the western state of Guerrero alone and some 300 people missing, private Radio Red reported.

    But the Mexican Red Cross had put the estimated death toll as high as 400, with 20,000 homeless, and the total looked likely to rise as the dead in remote communities were added to the mounting casualites.

    Apart from Pauline, the 1997 season in "hurricane alley" in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean has been the quietest in years.

    With only six tropical storms and hurricanes, most of them weak, a year that was expected to be busy could go down as one of the Atlantic basin's quietest hurricane seasons ever.

    Hurricanes draw their strength from warm ocean waters and always weaken once they are over land.

    This year, thanks to El Nino, the worst of the storm season has shifted west.

    Mexico has been hit hard this year and California threatened because El Nino moves storms further north and further east, closer to land, than usual, forecasters said.


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