Rafael Morena Valle, governor of Puebla state, said canine units
were searching for the missing, but the number of unaccounted for
residents was unclear.
Mexico mudslides
Mudslides triggered by intense
rainfall in eastern Mexico killed 40 people at the weekend as saturated
hillsides collapsed onto modest homes in the wake of now-dissipated
Tropical Storm Earl.
The death toll rose late on
Sunday after state governors in the two most affected states confirmed
two more deaths from a series of mudslides that struck hillside
communities.
The head of national emergency
services previously put the death toll at 38, the vast majority of whom
were found in Puebla state, while the remainder died in neighboring
Veracruz.
Rafael Morena Valle, governor of Puebla
state, said canine units were searching for the missing, but the number
of unaccounted for residents was unclear.
Images
of the damage from Earl, broadcast on Mexican television, showed massive
mudslides burying entire hillsides, trees felled and buildings creaking
under collapsed walls and roofs.
On the Pacific coast, Mexico's Baja California peninsula braced for another major storm to strike as early as Monday.
Tropical
Storm Javier was generating maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per
hour (80 kph) on Sunday night and was forecast to become a hurricane
late Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a statement.
The center of the storm was expected to strike the southern tip of Baja, home to the beach resort of Los Cabos, by Monday night.
At
least 25 of the deaths in Puebla state were confirmed on Sunday near
the town of Huauchinango in the rugged Sierra Norte de Puebla mountains,
site of the worst destruction so far.
Eleven
people have died in Veracruz, buried in landslides after intense
rainfall and flooding struck the Gulf coast state after Earl crossed the
Yucatan peninsula.
"We continue to monitor rivers
that are above critical levels," Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte said
in a post on Twitter on Sunday.
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