Hurricane Grace hits Mexico’s Gulf coast, 8 dead

Hurricane Grace swept onto Mexico's Gulf coast as a major Category 3 storm and moved inland Saturday, drenching coastal and inland areas in its second landfall in the country in two days.

At least eight people died, authorities said.

The storm had lost strength when it crossed the Yucatan Peninsula on Thursday, where it affected Mexico's main tourist strip, but quickly gained strength due to relatively warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico before reaching the Mexican coast again on Friday night.

At least eight people perished, including six children, because of mudslides and flooding, said Cuitláhuac García, governor of the state of Veracruz.

In an impoverished neighborhood in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state, a landslide buried a tin house where Adán Moreno, an iron store assistant, lived with his wife and seven children.

Moreno described seeing part of a hill falling on his house, burying his whole family.

With the help of his neighbors and other relatives, one of his sons was pulled out alive, but his wife and the rest of the children died. "My house was not made of concrete; it was just a simple tin sheet. Because we are still paying for the land so we can keep it and because the truth is, one lives day by day and one can't do any more," said Moreno. "If it had been up to me, I would have built a room with concrete walls, something that could withstand a blow like that."

Grace also caused havoc in the state of Puebla, where 28 municipalities were left without electricity, various roads were blocked by landslides and falling trees and 48 people had to be transferred to temporary shelters, according to the state government.