Death toll from torrential rains in Mexico rises to 64 as search expands

POZA RICA, Mexico (AP) — Fifteen minutes before water from a flooded stream swept into her home, Lilia Ramírez took off running with what little she could carry. When she returned she found not only damage from the water that had flooded her first floor to the ceiling, but the oil it had carried now streaking her walls.

Poza Rica is an oil town, and among the challenges confronting some residents who fled flooding that has killed 64 people across five states and left 65 missing, is residue from the oil that built this city not far from the Gulf of Mexico. Authorities say some 100,000 homes across the region have been damaged by the torrential rains and flooding.

“Never before has it been tarred before like that,” Ramírez said Monday standing in her devastated ground floor, where walls that had once been pink were now vertically striped with black.

Mexico has deployed some 10,000 troops in addition to civilian rescue teams. Helicopters have ferried food and water to the 200 some communities that remained cut off by ground and carried out the sick and injured.

“There are sufficient resources, this won’t be skimped on ... because we’re still in the emergency period,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said during her daily press briefing Monday.

But on some streets in Poza Rica, 170 miles (275 kilometers) northeast of Mexico City, the cleanup of mud and debris was complicated by thick oil deposits on trees, roofs and vehicles tossed by the current that swept through Friday.

Parts of Veracruz state received some 24.7 inches (62.7 centimeters) of rain from Oct. 6 to 9.

Ramírez said that at other times of heavy rains, the state oil company Pemex had drained nearby areas with oil to avoid it spreading.

Roberto Olvera, one of her neighbors, said that a siren from a nearby Pemex facility alerted them to danger. “It was a really anguishing moment because a lot of people from the neighborhood stayed behind and some perished,” he said.

Pemex said in a brief statement to the AP that so far it did not have reports of an oil spill in the area.

Sheinbaum acknowledged it could still be days before access is established to some places. “A lot of flights are required to take sufficient food and water” to those places, she said.

The president denied that government systems had failed to provide sufficient warning. “It would have been difficult to have had much advance knowledge of this situation, (it's) different from with hurricanes,” she said.

Mexico’s Civil Protection agency said the heavy rains had killed 29 people in Veracruz state on the Gulf Coast as of Monday morning, and 21 people in Hidalgo state, north of Mexico City. At least 13 were killed in Puebla, east of Mexico City. Earlier, in the central state of Querétaro, a child died in a landslide.

Authorities have attributed the deadly downpours to two tropical systems that formed off the western coast of Mexico and have since dissipated, Hurricane Pricilla and Tropical Storm Raymond.

This version has corrected that Olvera is a neighbor not a husband of another person quoted in the story.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A rescue worker, part of the volunteer brigade known as the Topos, works near a car hanging over a fence by a damaged house in Poza Rica, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, after torrential rains. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

People clean the Ramirez family's flooded house in Poza Rica, Veracruz state, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, after torrential rains. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A plush toy lies in the mud inside a flooded house in Poza Rica, Veracruz state, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, after torrential rains. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

People clean the Olvera Gomez family's house in Poza Rica, Veracruz state, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, after torrential rains. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Damaged vehicles sit in mud after flooding in Poza Rica, Veracruz state, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — Much of northern Nigeria has been struck by conflict in an ongoing security crisis, and U.S. President Donald Trump has singled the country out for what he calls “the killing of Christians” by “radical Islamists.”

Victims and church leaders have reiterated Trump’s claims that Christians are persecuted, saying they’ve long been attacked, kidnapped or killed over their faith.

But many insist the reality isn’t that simple, with experts and residents saying most attacks emphasize the widespread violence that has long plagued the West African nation, where everyone is a potential victim, regardless of background or belief.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

A woman and others who were kidnapped during a church service in November 2024 waves outside her house in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Deborah Reuben, who was kidnapped with others in her community and later released after ransom was paid, clears the grass from a farm in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Deborah Reuben, a woman who was kidnapped with others in her community and later released after ransom was paid, listens to a question during an interview in Kaduna, northwestern, Nigeria, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Haruna Adamu, an imam who said he has lost two brothers in the violence, performs ablutions outside a mosque in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Haruna Adamu, an imam who said he’s lost two brothers to violence, prays with others at a mosque in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Haruna Adamu, an imam who said he has lost two brothers in his country’s violence, leaves after a prayers at a mosque in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

The Rev. Micah Bulus, left, a pastor who was kidnapped along with others from a service in November 2024, speaks with church members in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Tabitha Danladi, a 52-year-old mother of four who was kidnapped in June and later released and told to raise money to free her husband, is shown during an interview with The Associated Press in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, Nov. 6, 2025. "I've sold everything and they have been collecting ransoms but we don't know if he's still alive," said Danladi. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Idris Ishaq, an Imam who said he lost his grandson, cousin and elder brother in different attacks since 2022, prays at the central mosque in Kaduna northwestern, Nigeria, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Idris Ishaq, an imam who said he’s lost his grandson, cousin and elder brother in different attacks since 2022, prays at the central mosque in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A woman walk past a church were worshipers and their pastor were kidnapped during a church service in Nov. 2024, Kaduna northwestern, Nigeria, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

The Rev. Micah Bulus, right, standing, a pastor who was kidnapped along with others from a church service in November 2024, speaks with church members in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)