
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 8, 1993                   TAG: 9307080150
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO                                LENGTH: Medium

HURRICANE KILLS 28 ON MEXICAN COAST

Hurricane Calvin lost strength Wednesday as it passed over the Mexican mainland after leaving a trail of flooding and destruction along the country's Pacific Coast.

At least 28 people were reported killed since Monday by winds, floods and storm-related rains from the Yucatan Peninsula to the Gulf of California. More than 18,000 were forced from their homes.

By 8 p.m., the hurricane was 25 miles west-southwest of Puerto Vallarta, moving northwest at about 13 mph. Mexican officials issued a hurricane warning for Baja California, 300 miles to the northwest and the next land to be hit by the storm if its path is consistent.

Earlier, docks and airports closed as the storm moved slowly northward past posh resorts, oil ports and fishing villages. Coconut palms and other trees fell. Dozens of seaside cottages, thatched-roof restaurants and huts were torn off their foundations or washed away.

Calvin hit Manzanillo, a city of 93,000, with winds of 85 mph, then sliced inland through sparsely populated countryside, toward Puerto Vallarta, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Fla.

Maximum sustained winds then decreased to about 75 mph. Officials at the U.S. National Weather Service in Miami, Fla., said, however, that winds may pick up as the hurricane moved back over water.

There were no immediate reports of deaths in the Manzanillo-Puerto Vallarta region, but phones and power were out in much of the area, many roads were blocked and there was extensive flooding, said Marcelino Rojo of the Civil Protection Agency for Jalisco State, which includes Puerto Vallarta.

"There is damage, but we can't say how much there is because of the lack of communication," he said, adding there were reports of waist-deep water in some towns.

Officials in Colima state, which includes Manzanillo, said late in the morning that they had not received any reports of deaths but that the storm had knocked out electricity and destroyed shacks.

State officials said 4,000 people had been evacuated. Notimex and other Mexican news organizations reported more than 14,000 people had been evacuated or driven from their homes to the south.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB