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Mexico

Survivors of Mexican hurricane facing shortages of food and water

(12:03pm AEST)

Survivors of Hurricane Pauline on Mexico's Pacific coast are facing shortages of
food and water and rapidly inflating prices.

Pauline hit last Thursday killing at least two-hundred people and destroying houses
and farmlands along the coast before slamming into the city of Acapulco.

A consumer protection official in the city says shopkeepers are charging 1,000
percent more than usual for water, 500 percent more for tortillas, and 200 percent
more for milk.

The Mexican Red Cross says it stands by its estimate that 400 people were killed,
Director-general Ricardo Velazquez Sanchez, re-stated his organisation's estimate
during a visit to Acapulco.

The government says 149 people died, most of them in Acapulco with perhaps 200
to 300 missing.

Mr Sanchez says most of the people listed as missing were washed out to sea or
buried under tonnes of mud and rubble.

=A9 1996 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Mon Oct 13 12:30:01

1997 ( AEST )

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

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