7 dead, 128 missing in Mexico mudslide

An early morning mudslide in the Oaxaca state of Mexico has caused seven confirmed fatalities, and between 100 and 128 individuals are missing in the aftermath.

Mud disrupted by storms flooded “several hundred homes” in the indigenous village in Oaxaca, but the extent of the damage to Santa Maria as well as loss of life has been difficult to measure due to the remote location of the area. Officials cited difficult to navigate or impassable roads as well as inconsistent communication lines when asked about earlier estimates of fatalities of between 500-1,000 people. A bridge connecting to the village was “washed out,” and two helicopters sent by the government were forced to turn around when they were unable to land in severe rain.

The LA Times describes the conditions that lead to the disaster:

Following days of heavy rains spawned in part by Hurricane Karl and Tropical Storm Matthew, a hill collapsed above the agrarian Oaxaca town of Santa Maria de Tlahuitoltepec between 2 and 4 a.m. as residents slept. A 200-meter-wide landslide crashed into 100 to 300 homes, Ruiz said.

Santa Maria is a town of about 6,000 people, all Mixe, an indigenous group whose name derives from the word for “clouds” and who are often referred to as the people of the clouds, an allusion, perhaps, to just how remotely they live.

According to press, local officials had warned locals for days about weakened landscape due to lengthy periods of rain in Oaxaca.