Death Toll From Hurricane in Mexico Tops 100

Navy rescue teams and fishermen scoured Mexico’s northwestern coast Wednesday in a desperate search for victims and possible survivors of Hurricane Ismael as the death toll rose above 100.

Navy officials said they had three helicopters and several boats in the Gulf of California looking for bodies. The Mexican navy was joined by dozens of small boats operated by fishermen hoping to find missing comrades.

A navy spokeswoman said the death toll had risen to 105, and at least 30 people were believed to be missing.

Ismael battered Sinaloa state last Thursday and was nearly a spent force by Friday afternoon when it crossed the U.S. border. But by then it had made more than 30,000 people homeless, officials said.

Crying relatives of the dead and missing gathered at morgues and funeral parlors in the area, some hoping to take away their dead and others filing through photographs of bodies of unidentified victims to see if they could recognize them.

The fishing boats were caught by surprise last week when Hurricane Ismael came roaring across the Gulf of California at least 12 hours earlier than expected and pounded the states of Sinaloa and Sonora.

Most of the dead were crew members of shrimp boats that went out to sea when the shrimp season began 10 days ago.