Torrential rains and flooding from Hurricane Stan killed six people in southern Mexico on Wednesday after claiming more than 70 lives in Central America, Reuters reported. Rivers washed away a major bridge and ripped apart houses and buildings when they burst their banks in the city of Tapachula, on Mexico's southern border with Guatemala. "We have news that there are six dead in total," said Jose Ortiz, a senior official from Chiapas, the poor southern state where damage was worse. Tens of thousands of people fled their homes in Chiapas and the neighboring state of Veracruz after Stan, now reduced to a tropical depression, swept in from the Atlantic this week. "There is flooding, in some communities mudslides, there is no access by road, no telephone communication," said Jordan Jimenez of Mexico's civil protection agency in Chiapas. "There are people missing, some in shelters." At least 49 people were killed in El Salvador and 19 in Guatemala, most of them buried alive in mud as hillsides collapsed on their flimsy homes. Six people were killed in Nicaragua and three in Honduras. Stan came ashore on Tuesday near the city of Veracruz as a Category One hurricane with winds of nearly 80 mph (128 kph). In Veracruz state, it blew the roofs off shacks, injuring four people, and forced hundreds to evacuate when rivers overflowed. Lucas Lopez, an organic coffee salesman in Tapachula, said many homes and a railroad bridge had been washed away. "The river is huge, people have lost their things. It rained all night and it's still raining," he told Reuters by telephone from the city. President Vicente Fox traveled to Chiapas on Wednesday to see the damage.
