TAMPICO: Alberto, the first named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, has weakened into a tropical depression as it moves inland over northeastern Mexico, bringing more heavy rains and flooding after leaving three children dead.
The governor of Mexico’s Nuevo Leon state told local media late yesterday that at least three people, all under 18, had died due to the storm.
One of the victims was later identified by emergency services as a 15-year-old boy who was swept away by a current outside Monterrey, Mexico’s third-biggest city.
In both Nuevo Leon, where Alberto filled up the Santa Catarina river, causing it to break its banks, and in the coastal Tamaulipas state, local authorities moved people into temporary shelters and paused public activities.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm would continue to bring heavy rains and flooding across parts of northeastern Mexico, likely producing “considerable flash and urban flooding” and possibly life-threatening mudslides.
It warned that much of the Texas coastline could continue to see moderate flooding through the morning.
The storm made landfall earlier today near the Mexican city of Tampico and is churning west across the country at 30kph, packing maximum sustained winds of 55kph, the NHC said.
