It was one very violent gust of wind what he did collapsing the electoral stage during the rally of one of the candidates for the Mexican presidency, Jorge lvarez Maynez, in State of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. I am nine people diedamong which a child, and about fifty were injured. But the tragedy is just another example of what extreme weather conditions are causing in Mexico. In San Pedro Garza, in the metropolitan area of the industrial center of Monterrey, capital of Nuevo Leo’n, the pillars that supported the podium awning collapsed, overwhelmed by the storm and fell onto the scene where the candidate, third in the polls, was standing, and other colleagues from the centrist party Movimiento Ciudadano.
The tarpaulin and the giant screen of the stage they were about to crush the candidate and his collaborators who narrowly escaped. But the structure collapsed on the audience in the front rows. Shortly afterwards, in a video in which he appeared completely dressed in black, the governor of Nuevo Leon, Samuel Garcia, asked the population to take shelter in their homes from the storm: “Fifteen minutes ago there was already an accident. The fort wind knocked down a stage, unfortunately there are injured security forces and ambulances are already there.” Later, in statements to the press, Garcia confirmed that there had been nine deaths and at least 121 injured.
In this video you can see how the entire structure collapses on the crowd, 5 dead and more than 50 injured are reported in San Pedro Garza García.
It is a sad night for Mexico. pic.twitter.com/3DB1a8hnzm
— Roberto Haz (@tudimebeto)
May 23, 2024
Since mid-March the country has been in the grip of the heatwave: at least 26 people have died, ten cities recorded record temperatures, and among these also the capital, Mexico City, which is at high altitude and normally has a temperate climate. The water shortage is so severe that even the traffic police have staged protests over the “intolerable” working conditions. As ocean waters in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico have warmed, temperatures in adjacent land areas have risen, triggering violent storms.
Extreme temperatures are also proving to be a danger for wildlife: an example of this is death of dozens of howler monkeys. In the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, at least 147 have died in recent days. They fall to the ground from the trees, stunned by the high temperature and dehydration. Initially, zoologists thought they were suffering from the effects of smoke from fires started by farmers clearing nearby land. But as temperatures soared above 37 degrees Celsius in recent weeks, residents began finding groups of 10 or more dead monkeys, many with signs of dehydration. “They fall from the trees like apples,” said Gilberto Pozo, a biologist who is studying in the area, and then “they die within a few minutes.”