Hurricane, tropical storm combine to kill 21 in Mexico

ACAPULCO: Mexico, already battered by heavy rain, landslides and floods on its Pacific and eastern coasts that have killed at least 21 people, braced Monday for an expected hit from Hurricane Ingrid.

Thousands of people were evacuated as Ingrid and Manuel -- downgraded to a tropical depression -- flanked Mexico on the Pacific and Gulf coasts, causing rivers to overflow, flooding streets and damaging bridges.

The country was facing an "atypical and unusual" situation as it has never before been hit by a hurricane 24 hours after a tropical storm made landfall, National Weather Service coordinator Juan Manuel Caballero told a news conference.

Hurricane Ingrid was expected to make landfall early Monday on the east coast. State-run energy firm Pemex evacuated three oil platforms off the Gulf coast of the northeastern state of Tamaulipas and shut down 24 wells.

On the Pacific side, Manuel weakened into a tropical depression late Sunday, hours after making landfall near the Colima state town of Manzanillo, the US National Hurricane Center said.

But the weather system was still producing heavy rainfall likely to trigger more floods and mudslides, the Miami-based center said.

At least 11 of the 21 deaths were in the Pacific resort of Acapulco, where water rose as high as three feet (one meter) in some neighborhoods, dragging cars away.

The port and the international airport were closed and the highway linking Mexico City to Acapulco shut down due to landslides and flooding in the southwestern state of Guerrero.

Some 2,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the state, while more than 20,000 households lost power.