Along Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, floodwaters receded on Monday, leaving behind devastated towns and 17 dead, after John struck the coast once as a hurricane and again as a tropical storm last week.
Desperate residents in the town of Coyuca de Benitez, about 35 miles west of the resort city of Acapulco, organised volunteers to go to outlying areas to burn the bloated bodies of farm animals that drowned.
The carcasses could become a health risk, so teams of townspeople set out with cans of diesel to help them in their grim work.
The Mexican army began delivering aid packages to families in the town that were hit last year by Hurricane Otis and then last week — twice — by John.
Some are becoming so tired of the repeated hurricane impacts every year they have almost given up.
“I don’t want to buy anything anymore, if this is going to continue happening every year,” said Yahaira Garcia Marin, 32, as she began to clear out her shattered house in Coyuca de Benitez.
Ms Garcaa Marin had to flee in the night last week with her 80-year-old grandmother. “It was terrible, we had to grab what little we had and get out,” she recalled.
Outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — whose last day in office was Monday — has not visited the disaster zone, but he confirmed on Sunday that 15 people had died.
Officials in Guerrero state, where both Coyuca and Acapulco are located, said more than three feet of rain had fallen in the region between September 23 when John made landfall to the east of Acapulco as a Category 3 hurricane, and Friday, when the rejuvenated Tropical Storm John came ashore again to the west of Coyuca.
That meant the area got the equivalent of about 80% of the rain it would normally expect to see in a year, in just four or five days.
The rain also set off landslides that collapsed houses and blocked roads in the mountainous terrain behind the coast.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here