At least 40 people are now confirmed dead after multiple mudslides and flooding in Mexico. <br /><br /> Heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Earl, in the country’s eastern regions over the weekend, saw several hillsides collapse, wiping out entire villages. <br /><br /> The states of Puebla and Veracuz along Mexico’s Caribbean coast were the worst affected. <br /><br /> Earl hit Belize on Thursday as a Category One hurricane, but was later downgraded to a tropical depression. <br /><br /> Despite weakening by the time it got to Mexico, the storm still left a path of destruction, forcing hundreds of residents in remote villages to flee for shelter. <br /><br /> ‘‘The water destroyed all the houses. We managed to escape but sadly some of our neighbours weren’t so lucky,’‘ said one man from the village of Huauchinango in Puebla. <br /><br /> ‘‘We rescued ourselves, because if we hadn’t, well who knows, because some people were killed,’‘ said another man. <br /><br /> The latest bad weather and deaths comes as another Tropical Storm, Javier, forms off Mexico’s Pacific coast. The storm is expected to make landfall late on Tuesday.<br />
