Mexico considers revising budget as storm death toll hit 110

Mexico is considering revising its 2014 budget to counter the heaviest storm damage in decades after death toll has risen to at least 110, President Pena Nieto said Sunday. Nieto said the Congress "will absolutely have to adjust" the federal budget in light of the mounting destruction caused by the two hurricanes, Ingrid and Manuel. The government only has 12 billion pesos (934 million U.S. dollars) from the contingency fund to deal with the "undoubtedly substantial" reconstruction, Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said. Earlier this month, the government said it aimed to run a budget deficit this year and next as it forges ahead with spending on infrastructure. Now it must find additional funds to repair roads and infrastructure destroyed by the storms. The death toll caused by the hurricanes rose to 110 and more than half of the victims were in the southwestern state of Guerrero, Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said Sunday. Nieto warned the number could rise as there was little hope of finding alive the 68 people missing in a massive landslide Wednesday in La Pintada, a mountain village in Guerrero. "We are facing the most widespread rains in the country. Tomorrow (Monday) we will surely have already exceeded the record rainfall in recent decades," said the president, who canceled his U.S. trip this week and was touring the northern state of Sinaloa. Around 1.2 million people from 24 of all the 32 states were affected by the two hurricanes and 58,000 people were still living in shelters. This was the first time since 1958 that two storms hit both coasts of Mexico from the Pacific and the Atlantic respectively within 24 hours, bringing heavy rains that caused flooding and landslide.