28 September 2024,   14:13
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Alberto weakens to tropical depression over northern Mexico, 4 dead

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 four dead, including three children, writes Reuters.

The governor of Mexico’s Nuevo Leon state told local media late Wednesday that at least three people under 18 had died due to the storm. By Thursday morning, civil protection had reported a fourth death due to an electric shock, local media reported.

One of the victims was later identified by emergency services as a 15-year-old boy swept away by a current outside Monterrey, Mexico’s third-biggest city in Nuevo Leon state, where the Santa Catarina river swelled and broke its banks.

The storm, however, brought much-needed rain across swathes of Mexico, where some of its reservoirs had water levels as low as 8% due to an extended drought and summer heat wave, even filling the much-depleted La Boca dam to the brim.

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