Standing near the lifeless body of her sister, Rosalia Ortega is grateful to have found her in the river of mud that suddenly swept away her house as torrential rains pounded this Mexican mountain town.

At least 44 people have died since Thursday as floods wreaked a trail of destruction in the hardest-hit states of Hidalgo, Puebla, Queretaro and Veracruz.

"We're sad, but at least we're going to give her a Christian burial," Ortega, 76, told AFP in the town of Huauchinango, in Puebla, a state east of Mexico City that according to official reports saw nine deaths and substantial damage.

The disaster zone is the Sierra Madre Oriental, a mountain range that runs parallel to Mexico's east coast and is dotted with villages.

On Thursday, well after dark, a rain-swollen mountain river overflow

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