WORST FLOODS IN 50 YEARS STRIKE MEXICO - Donations of everything sought
3 November 2007Famlies sent to shelters forced to flee again; fears of disease grow, more rain forecast.
Residents walk along the flooded streets of Villahermosa, state capital of Tabasco, in Mexico.
A huge rescue operation began in southern Mexico Friday, with rescue workers in boats, helicopters and military trucks striving to bring relief to almost a million people whose homes have been overwhelmed by the worst floods in the area in at least half a century.
Families who ignored calls to leave their homes were huddled on rooftops with no food and drinking water as murky waters surged up to the eaves of buildings and forecasters warned of more rain to come. Others were evacuated to shelters that later also proved vulnerable to the floods.
A Federal policeman carries a flood-affected baby from a helicopter
after she was rescued in Villahermosa, the state capital of Tabasco,
in southeastern Mexico yesterday.
In an address to the nation in which he appealed for donations of everything from can openers to generators, President Felipe Calderon called the crisis in Tabasco state “one of the worst disasters in the history of the country”.
The state governor, Andres Granier, said the floods had directly affected 900,000 people. Half a million had been made homeless, and of these, 300,000 still required rescuing. With many of the buildings designated as shelters now also under water, Granier said the authorities were desperately trying to find other accommodation to cope with the new influx of displaced people.
Officials said only one person had been confirmed dead as a result of the flooding, but volunteer rescue workers have told some reporters that they have seen bodies floating past their boats.
The state capital, Villahermosa, is among the worst hit areas. The city is built in a kind of bowl below sea level, prompting comparisons with New Orleans.
On Thursday the Grijalva river that borders the city overflowed a huge sandbag dyke erected by soldiers and volunteers after the flooding began.
By Friday the entire city center was under murky water, several meters deep in some areas. The water also reached two hospitals, and patients were flown to hospitals in neighboring states.
Reporters Friday described crowds of despondent people wandering waste high through flooded streets, some clutching plastic bags with a few salvaged possessions.
“We lost everything,” Manuel Gonzalez told the Associated Press. “I left [my house] without one peso in my pocket and I can’t find my brothers and sisters.”
There were also reports of long queues and panic buying at supermarkets and petrol stations in the few remaining operational parts of town. The few roads still open were clogged with people trying to get away.
The federal health minister, Jose Angel Cordova, said there would be an immediate vaccination campaign in the shelters against hepatitis. Officials were also watching for any signs of a cholera outbreak, and there was concern about mosquito-borne diseases, particularly dengue fever.
Most media attention has focused on Villahermosa, but with most of the state inundated officials were warning of dire conditions in the countryside too. Aerial images show only the occasional patch of high ground, sometimes crowded with cattle, visible above the water.
The flooding followed 10 days of heavy rain that swelled the many rivers flowing through this low-lying tropical state on the Gulf of Mexico.
Skies cleared Friday, lifting the spirits of some, but forecasters predicted more rain over the weekend.
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