This latest landslide reportedly happened Tuesday at Amatan in the southern state of Chiapas. Amatan lies about 40 miles south-southeast of Villahermosa in the neighboring state of Tabasco.
In the lead-up to the landslide, rainfall at Villahermosa was about 8 inches within 24 hours, and the hills in and about Amatan may have had much more.
Thus, rain-soaked steep hillsides likely broke loose owing to the loading from excessive rainfall.
The Chiapas slide followed by a day another deadly landslip in the rugged state of Oaxaca, west of Chiapas. This slide, at the hillside town of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, left 11 people missing according to authorities. Earlier fears had been that up to 1,000 people were dead or missing.
As of Thursday, all of southern Mexico will benefit from a break in the heavy rain for at least a few days.
Story by Jim Andrews, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist
