Heavy rainfall in the region is expected to continue, and remnants of the storm are likely to form a tropical depression by Friday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Aldis Lopez, 21, and Mario Cruz, 18, were the first confirmed victims of the storm in the community of Santa Catarina Xanaguia, in the hardest-hit state of Oaxaca.
“They were buried between rocks and mud,” Axel Martinez, spokesman for Oaxaca’s civil protection agency, told Reuters.
The Civil Protection Agency has confirmed that a third person has died in the town of San Mateo Pinas, a woman who was caught in a landslide.
Five other people were reported missing, according to the state’s public security secretary.
Agatha made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on Monday afternoon, making landfall with winds of 105 miles per hour (169 km per hour) near the seaside town of Puerto Angel on the Pacific Coast, losing strength moving inland.
Late Tuesday, the storm continued to pour torrential rains into the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco and Veracruz, according to Mexico’s National Water Commission (CONAGUA).
Agatha’s remnants interacted with an “upper-level trough” over the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, according to the NHC. The disturbance has a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression within the next 48 hours and a 75% chance by Friday.
The storm is likely to bring precipitation to Mexico’s Yucatan, as well as Guatemala, Belize, Cuba and Florida over the next few days, the NHC said.
At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would meet with authorities and security advisers to monitor the situation.
The rain caused mud and rocks to slide on two Oaxaca highways, blocking access to at least one area of the state, according to local authorities. The Mexican Ministry of Transport was trying to clear the roads on the night of Monday Tuesday.
Some towns in Oaxaca lost power, and a transformer exploded, authorities said. Telephone lines were cut on Monday, forcing the authorities to communicate by radio.
Agatha, the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico during May, is expected to drop a total of 10-16 inches (25-41 cm) of rain on Oaxaca, with heavy downpours in neighboring states, said the NHC.