Landslides and flooding cut off 300 communities in Mexico with dozens
dead and missing
[October 15, 2025]
By AMARANTA MARENTES
TIANGUISTENGO, México (AP) — When a river that winds through the
mountains of central Mexico suddenly turned into a crushing wall of
water over this past week, it practically wiped the 400-person village
of Chapula off the map.
Residents only had time to shout, warning neighbors living along the
riverbanks, and desperately seek shelter from the deadly flooding and
landslides that have cut off 300 towns in central and eastern Mexico
from the outside world.
Thousands of soldiers and workers scrambled Tuesday to rescue civilians
and unblock roads.
“There's nothing left. It wiped out houses, it wiped out the bridge, it
wiped out everything. The only thing left standing was the church and
the warehouse where we were seeking refuge,” said 21-year-old Stephanie
Ramírez, who was part of a group of elderly, women and children who
stumbled off a rescue helicopter Tuesday.
The government confirmed that at least 64 people have died due to the
torrential rains. Dozens are still missing and officials warn the full
extent of the devastation in remote towns of a couple hundred to 1,000
residents remains unknown. The rains were triggered by the convergence
of two tropical storms churning off Mexico’s western coast, striking at
the end of an unusually heavy rainy season that has left rivers
overflowing and hillsides weakened.
Ramírez and her grandmother were evacuated after days of hoping help
would come. The rest of her family and dozens of their neighbors were
still waiting to be evacuated. As more rain threatened to pour down,
they sought shelter on a nearby hillside on the verge of collapsing next
to the still-swollen river.
“We have to get them out. They're in constant danger there,” Ramírez
said.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that one of the
government’s priorities was to open roads and “to secure air bridges,
food supplies, water, and check on how each person is faring.”
Thousands of military and civilian personnel were working tirelessly on
those efforts Tuesday, but in Chapula, residents decided to organize on
their own. According to Ramírez, they called their relatives in the
United States, “and it was them who made arrangements to get us out of
there little-by-little.”
With help from residents of the nearby town of Tianguistengo, a private
air bridge began operating, using a borrowed helicopter to evacuate
groups of about half a dozen people at a time, while other residents
organized bags of basic goods to carry on foot — with some soldiers— to
neighboring villages that were still cut off.
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Locals transport supplies along a mud-covered street in Poza Rica,
Veracruz state, Mexico, on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, after landslides
and torrential rain. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
“We think it’s about six or seven hours walking, but we want people
to know that we’re working … that they can see we also care about
their situation,” said local resident Neptalí Rodríguez.
The hardest-hit states are Veracruz, Hidalgo and Puebla. In Hidalgo
alone, where roughly half of the isolated villages are located,
about 100,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by flooding rivers and
mudslides. In Veracruz, where at least 29 people died, rainfall
reached 24 inches in just four days. Veracruz Gov. Rocío Nahle said
more than 300,000 people were affected in the state alone.
On Tuesday, public officials were going door-to-door in cities like
Poza Rica, Veracruz, where water from the overflowing Cazones River
on Friday reached 13 feet (four meters) high in some areas. They
were asking residents if anyone was missing.
According to the National Civil Protection Coordination, 67 people
were still unaccounted for as of Tuesday.
Health teams had began fumigating affected areas to prevent
outbreaks of dengue, a disease spread by mosquitoes.
In Poza Rica, resident Roberto Olvera said an oil refinery alarm
alerted him to rising waters.
“It was terrifying, many people in the neighborhood couldn’t
escape,” he said. Floodwaters there also left a black, oily residue
believed to have come from nearby oil and gas installations, coating
trees and rooftops.
Dozens of health centers were damaged, including one in Álamo,
Veracruz, where floodwaters reached two meters (6.5 feet),
destroying all equipment. Local health director Martí Batres said
medical staff are now working outdoors.
While thousands of soldiers and rescue teams search for the missing
and deliver aid, helicopters are ferrying supplies to isolated zones
and private construction firms are helping to reopen key roads.
Sheinbaum said there are enough resources to respond and that the
government “will spare no expense during this emergency.”
____
Associated Press photojournalist Felix Márquez contributed to this
report from Poza Rica, Mexico.
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