Death toll from hurricane rises

PACHUCA, Mexico (AFP) - Officials in central Mexico yesterday said they found a ninth victim of Hurricane Dean, bringing the overall storm death toll to at least 26.

The man, a 65-year-old shepherd, drowned when he was swept into a drainage canal overflowing with water from Dean, officials in the state of Hidalgo said.

Hurricane Dean had earlier killed at least 17 people during its rampage across the Caribbean.

Several rivers burst their banks Thursday in Hidalgo, cutting off roads and damaging farmland. More than 10,000 people in the state were evacuated to higher ground as river levels continued to rise.

Dean first slammed ashore on Mexico's Caribbean coast on Tuesday as a monster hurricane of the topmost category five. It gradually lost steam as it crossed the Yucatan Peninsula before swirling over the Gulf of Mexico and heading inland once more.

At its peak on Tuesday, Dean packed maximum sustained winds of 270 kilometers (165 miles) per hour, making it the first category five Atlantic hurricane to hit land since Andrew ravaged the US state of Florida in 1992.

Despite its intensity, Dean did not cause the catastrophic damage initially feared.