Five dead in Mexico as Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel bring floods

Rains and flooding along Mexico's Pacific coast from Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel have left five people dead, authorities said on Monday. Gov. Evelyn Salgado said during the daily presidential press conference that a 71-year-old man died when a wall collapsed in Chilpancingo, in the southern state of Guerrero. The Baja California state prosecutor's office reported that Tropical Storm Rachel caused the deaths of four members of one family, including two children, whose bodies were found on the outskirts of the city of Ensenada.

Five more people remain missing, and security forces used helicopters to rescue 32 people, prosecutors said. Officials warned that waves of up to 5 meters (16 feet) high were still expected in some coastal areas. Flooding and landslides had already hit communities close to rivers and streams in the states of Michoacan and Colima.

Simon did not make landfall, authorities said. After weakening to Category 2 on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, the storm was moving away from the coast, and a rain alert remained in place. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Simon will approach Mexico's west-central coast between Wednesday and Thursday.

National civil protection coordinator Laura Velazquez said the latest official report from Mexican authorities indicates the storm "will hit Mazatlan, Sinaloa, as a Category 1 hurricane." Puerto Vallarta, which had been bracing for extreme weather, awoke on Monday to clear skies and a rainbow, an AFP team observed. Residents exercised along the seafront promenade as waves continued to crash with force.

Magda Flores, 55, told AFP she felt "much more at ease." She voiced hope that shuttered businesses in the beach resort would reopen soon.