Alberto kills four as storm moves over Mexico

STORY: These basketball courts in Monterrey, Mexico looked more like wave pools on Thursday as Alberto, the first named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, continued to lash the northeastern part of the country.

Heavy rains and flooding have left four dead including three children, according to a state governor and others.

In some areas, residents were moved into temporary shelters as a local river broke its banks.

In the coastal city of Ciudad Madero, lounge chairs on the beach were pulled into the water requiring Mario Hernandez, who rents them out to tourists, to rescue them.

“It started normally, but now it’s getting stronger, the air is getting stronger. We have to look for waterways in order to protect our belongings. Certain things always get flooded. The problem is that waterways cause destruction.”

The storm, however, brought much-needed rain across swathes of Mexico, where some of its reservoirs had water levels as low as 8% due to an extended drought and summer heat wave.

Brett Anderson, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said on Thursday that due to climate change the types of extreme heat and drought conditions Mexico has experienced will become the new normal, trapping pollutants and drying up the water cycle.

The tropical storm also caused flooding in Texas along the coastline.

But the U.S. National Hurricane Center said northeastern Mexico would continue to deal with the brunt of Alberto’s force with heavy rains and flooding likely producing "considerable flash and urban flooding" and possibly life-threatening mudslides.

The storm did weaken to a tropical depression as it moved inland.