Death toll from Alex rises to 7 in northern Mexican state
Posted: July 2nd, 2010 | Author: jason | Filed under: disaster, floods, hurricanes | Tags: border states, death, disaster, disaster fund, export, mexico state, ministry, minor storm, national disaster, northeastern mexico, northern neighbor, nuevo leon, vector casa de bolsa, Xinhua | No Comments »MEXICO CITY, July 2 (Xinhua) — Civil Protection authorities in northern Mexican state Nuevo Leon raised the death toll from Alex to seven on Friday from four a day earlier, Mexican broadcasters reported.
Alex, which hit northeastern Mexico state Tamaulipas as a category two hurricane on Wednesday night, dumped heavy rains to four states including Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Zacatecas and Jalisco.
The tropical storm is downgraded to a minor storm.
The total death toll in Mexico is now 13. Some 10 people died due to Alex’s destructive journey through Nicaragua, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
On Friday, Mexico’s Interior Ministry declared an emergency for 21 municipalities in Nuevo Leon, a move which frees funds from the National Disaster Fund managed by the ministry.
Rodolfo Navarrete, an economist at Vector Casa de Bolsa, told Xinhua that the disaster will have a clear economic impact for the nation as a whole.
“The hurricane will have an economic impact because Monterrey is practically paralysed,” Navarrete said. “It is going to reduce industrial production in July.”
The hurricane has destroyed bridges, caused oil slick and paralysed traffic in some regions. A group representing Monterrey business owners said that some 25,000 people did not show up for work on Friday.
Monterrey is Mexico’s most industrialized city and part of an area dedicated to manufacturing for export that spread across all of Mexico’s border states. Alongside central Mexican state Puebla, border states produce large volumes of vehicles for export to the United States, the nation’s northern neighbor.
The auto industry represents around 15 percent of Mexico’s gross domestic product.
via Death toll from Alex rises to 7 in northern Mexican state.


