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Dean leaves a trail of destruction in Mexico, but no victims

The absence of victims is the best news for Mexicans today after being hit by the powerful Hurricane Dean, finally downgraded to a tropical storm.

However, Dean left a lot of destruction in its wake on the Yucatan peninsula, where it had its first landfall with an exceptional sustained force of 260 kilometers per hour and gusts in excess of 300 km.

Modest homes built with fragile materials, vital cultivations, trees, highways, tourist facilities and other infrastructural works suffered the consequences of the hurricane, one of the fiercest to hit the country.

Areas in the states of Quintana Roo, where it entered with tremendous force, Campeche and Yucatan stoically resisted its impact but could not avoid damage which, for many families literally signified total loss.

Dean crossed the peninsula and weakened in relation to its maximum-category force (5) on the Saffir Simpson scale attained in the Caribbean Sea, but continued being extremely dangerous given the heavy rain accompanying it and hurricane-force winds.

It left the Gulf of Mexico and once more gained in intensity, slightly in truth, but with enough force to alarm Veracruz and Tamaulipas on the eastern Mexican coast.

Once again it hit the first of those territories close to the port of Tuxpan and began to lash, with Guanajuato, Querétaro, Puebla and Hidalgo also in its sphere of influence.

This influence was even felt in the Valley of Mexico, where only some 100 kilometers separated it from the capital, and where there was intense rainfall for more than 12 hours, even though the impressive Sierra Madre imposed itself in its way to further weaken it.

Now it remains to quantify the damage in all its magnitude and begin reconstruction works which, for many, will be by their own means if the Mexican government does not fulfill its promises.

Source: Granma Internacional


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