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Mexico

People in Mexico's pacific mountains face starvation after hurricane

(12:50pm AEST)

Mexico's President Ernesto Zedillo says that people may soon begin starving to death in *Oaxaca state on the Pacific coast which was badly hit by Hurricane Pauline.

He says the government is working on an emergency footing to get food into remote mountain communities which had been cut off by the storm, but that the risk remains.

Hurricane Pauline plowed along past Mexico's Pacific coast ten days ago, leaving at least 240 people dead in three states and 300,000 homeless mostly in Oaxaca.

Despite continuing efforts to repair washed-out roads and bridges, nearly 20,000 in the state are still isloated from emergency crews and relief workers.

Many communities have been without food for up to five days and helicopters which had been flying in small amounts of food and water, have been grounded sine last Thursday by dense fog and rain.

=A9 1996 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Sun Oct 19 14:00:01 1997 ( AEST )

AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of UTC (Greenwich Mean Time)

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