Tropical storm Barry makes landfall in Mexico, leaves 1 dead

PanARMENIAN.Net - Barry, which made landfall in Mexico as a tropical storm but has since weakened to a low-pressure system, left one dead and three injured and caused damage in at least 19 municipalities in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, authorities said, according to Fox News Latino.

Veracruz's Civil Protection Secretariat identified the one fatality as 48-year-old Pedro Reyes, who was swept away by the current while trying to cross a stream.

Two minors and an adult, meanwhile were injured in the Veracruz town of Ixhuacan de los Reyes. Mexico's SMN meteorological service said in a bulletin Friday morning that the remnants of Barry, which was downgraded Thursday from a tropical storm to a tropical depression, could still drop torrential rain on the central Mexican states of Hidalgo, Puebla and Veracruz.

The hardest-hit Veracruz municipalities were Acatlan, Actopan, Altotonga, Alto Lucero, Atzalan, Banderilla, Coatepec, Las Minas, Las Vigas, Misantla, Naolinco, Tlalnelhuayocan, Tlapacoyan, Xalapa and Tihuatlan.

Barry was packing maximum sustained winds of 65 kph (40 mph) when it made landfall Thursday, June 20, in Veracruz, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Classes were cancelled in all 212 of the municipalities in the state, which had been suffering from a drought for several months.

Thus far, 88 homes and 15 residential areas in several Veracruz towns have reported flooding, while eight rural communities were cut off due to the heavy rains.

Barry was the second named storm of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30. EFE