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In Mexico's "Katrina," Volunteers Join Relief Efforts    [

    Mexicans Appalled by Scenes From Flooded State
    By Elisabeth Malkin
    The New York Times

    Sunday 04 November 2007

    Mexico City - Mexicans were gripped Saturday by images of dramatic rescues from flooding in the southeastern state of Tabasco, where much of the state capital, Villahermosa, was underwater and the governor said that thousands of people waited on their rooftops for help to arrive.

    Newspapers and television showed photos of Navy helicopters scooping up children from roofs and rescuers lowering elderly people into boats. Many of those who could leave on their own waded or swam though chest-high brackish water.

    The flooding in the state was brought on by days of unrelenting rain, which caused several rivers to overflow.

    President Felipe Calder n, who has visited Villahermosa twice this week, said that Mexico was facing one of the worst natural disasters in its recent history. But it was hard to gauge how widespread the damage was.

    The Tabasco governor, Andr s Granier, who compared Villahermosa to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, said that as many as one million of the state's 2.2 million residents had been affected by the flooding. But it was not clear if they had been left homeless.

    There was an earlier report that one person had died, but on Saturday Mr. Granier said that he had received no reports of deaths. But with so many people trapped, it was possible the death toll could rise.

    Mar a Beatriz Zavala Peniche, Mexico's secretary for social development, said Friday in a television interview that it was too early to quantify the damage yet.

    Despite the confusion, it was clear that much of Villahermosa remained paralyzed on Saturday, without clean drinking water and electricity in many areas. There were scattered reports of looting, although the government sent an additional 1,000 soldiers early Saturday to guard stores.

    The city is an important provincial capital on the low-lying swampy plains leading down to the Gulf of Mexico. It is also the site of the regional headquarters for the state oil monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos.

    The rest of the state is largely agricultural, and officials said most of the state's crops had been destroyed.

    The flooding is the most serious natural disaster in Mr. Calder n's 11 months as president. He canceled a trip to Central and South America next week.

    The flooding was caused by a cold front that brought five days of torrential rain that began last Sunday. There was some respite on Friday when the sun came out. But a new cold front brought more rain on Saturday, although it was lighter.

    In the neighboring state of Chiapas, which was also hit by heavy rains, state officials said that four people had died.

    Local officials in Tabasco asked Friday for more aid from the Mexican government. Beyond the help already being sent from the federal government, many states have been sending rescue workers and much-needed supplies. The United States, the European Union and Canada all offered aid, and the Foreign Relations Ministry on Saturday said it was analyzing those offers to see how best to channel the aid.

    Tabasco often suffers from flooding. After the last serious flooding in 1999, the state and federal governments began work on a complex flood-control project, but it was never completed.

    Mr. Granier, who is from the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, pressed Mr. Calder n during his visit on Friday for a commitment to finish the work.

    State officials said Friday that 69,000 people were in packed shelters around the state. Many residents who could leave the state sought refuge in the neighboring state of Veracruz.

    State Secretary Humberto Mayans said Friday that an estimated 100,000 people in Villahermosa had nowhere to go and were wandering the city's streets.

    "The damage these people have suffered to their patrimony and their conditions on the streets of the city imply a high risk to the state's social stability," he said during Mr. Calder n's visit to the city on Friday.

    During the visit, Mr. Calder n flew over the city, where red-tiled rooftops were all that could be seen of many houses.

    More than 1,000 troops arrived early Saturday morning to reinforce more than 5,000 who had already been dispatched to the state. Local officials had asked for more troops to prevent looting.

    The city's main hospitals were closed and their patients were evacuated, some to other states and as far away as Mexico City.

    The airport remained open, but the road from the city to the airport was flooded. Several other major access roads to the city were cut off, hampering the delivery of rescue equipment.

    Four thousand of the state's 5,700 schools have been damaged, and many of the rest were being used as shelters. Displaced people were also staying in improvised shelters in the parking lots of department stores.

    Around Mexico, people took advantage of the Day of the Dead holiday on Friday to drop off donations for the Tabasco victims. Television programs ran a crawl over their regular programming listing the items that were needed. Newspapers published lists of drop-off points and the numbers of bank accounts set up to funnel aid.

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    In Mexico's "Katrina," Volunteers Join Relief Efforts
    By Sara Miller Llana
    The Christian Science Monitor

    Monday 05 November 2007

Flooding leaves some 1 million people homeless in the southern oil state of Tabasco.

    Villahermosa, Mexico - As water rose to the roof of his home - nearly covering it as it has covered 80 percent of the Mexican state of Tabasco - Oscar Durango says there was nothing else to do but pitch in.

    "I lost everything," he says, standing in the hangar at the airport of Tabasco's state capital, Villahermosa, before loading baby food and bottles of water into military helicopters for the hundreds of thousands of Mexicans displaced by the nation's worst flooding in 50 years. Mr. Durango is surrounded by a dozen other volunteers. All have lost their homes. "The only thing you can do is help others," he shrugs.

    It's estimated that half of the 2.2 million residents of this southern, oil-rich state have been turned out by the floods. From the air, the state looks like a single lake with roofs and treetops poking out of the brackish water like islands. Most of the capital is submerged, and tens of thousands of Mexicans are still stranded, a scene suggestive of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Military officials say they're trying to rescue some 300,000 Mexicans still left stranded in their homes, including many on their rooftops.

    Mexican President Felipe Calder n, who flew over the flood-hit state Friday, called it one of the worst natural disasters the country has ever seen. He was schedule to visit again Sunday. Potable water is scarce, and electricity is off in many parts of the state. There have been some reports of looting. But many Mexicans here remained calm, lining up patiently for food supplies and to place calls from local phone booths. Cellphone service is spotty. Many say the volunteer effort here - from Mexicans across the country - is among the largest they've seen.

    "The solidarity has been overwhelming," says Norma Cardenas, the director of the state's Institute of Culture who now is in charge of Villahermosa's largest refugee shelter.

    Flooding began last week after nonstop rain caused several area rivers to overflow. Tabasco is a low-lying region prone to flooding, but Gov. Andres Granier, who compared it to New Orleans, said it was the worst inundation the state has seen in 50 years. While the floods have reportedly claimed only one victim in Tabasco, on Sunday seven other deaths were attributed to the flooding in the neighboring state of Chiapas.

    Officials say many challenges lie ahead, particularly disease prevention once the water recedes. The economic toll has not been tallied, but officials say that all the state's crops, including its famous Tabasco peppers, have been ruined.

    Streets leading out of Villahermosa were packed as residents headed for shelters in neighboring Veracruz. There are more than 450 shelters operating throughout the state, according to Max Romero, a spokesperson with the Red Cross in Tabasco.

    At the largest one here, set up in the parking garage of an upscale local department store, there are more than 4,600 people - a quarter of whom are children, says Ms. Cardenas. .

    On Saturday evening, families at the shelter were coming in for medical attention, watching television, and sprawled across sleeping mats that pack the parking garage. Garments hung from clotheslines. Two clowns walked around entertaining children. During the day, says Cardenas, many of the men left to fill sandbags. The shelter is full, so she says she's been turning away people.

    While the atmosphere is generally calm, some are desperate for word of their loved ones. Damari Geronimo says that the last time she spoke with her mother, father, and little brother, they were on the roof of the elementary school, an hour from Villahermosa. But since the cellphone service went out, she has heard no news. "We have no idea where they are," she says. "I just need to talk to them."

    Volunteers from across Mexico have come to help. Raul Toledo Dehesa, who works for the government of Mexico City, arrived Saturday and immediately went to a relief center. He says Mexico City has donated firemen, medical teams, and 60 tons of water, food, and medicine collected from residents there since the flooding started. "We are here to help. Tabasco is confronting what is truly a tragic situation," says Mr. Toledo Dehesa. Some banks in Mexico City stayed open on Friday, a national holiday, to receive donations. "I have never seen this kind of solidarity."

    Villahermosa was largely paralyzed this weekend. Cellphone service was restored for many users, but lines formed around food distribution areas. Hordes of residents lined the gates that enclose the central command center of the Mexican Marines, asking for help finding their families and for supplies. Many parts of the city were made inaccessible. "For the most part it is calm here now, because people are outside the danger zone," says one marine, who was not authorized to speak on the record, as he drove through the streets of the capital.

    Many organizations are still focusing on those who are still in their homes, a process they admit is slow, as those stranded are plucked from their roofs via helicopter or boat. "We are still rescuing a lot of people," says Mr. Romero.

    The acts of kindness are many, as Mexicans spontaneously help man refugee shelters and take in family members and strangers. Petrona Cruz, a single mother, lost her home and had enough time only to take one suitcase. She could not find space in a shelter, she says, so the employer of her son, a security guard for a local newspaper, allowed her family and two others to stay in a vacant office space. "Thank God for him," says Ms. Cruz. "Otherwise we would have no place to sleep."

    Like others, she says she isn't thinking about the future or what she has lost, but is focusing on survival. For many that means focusing on the many who are still much worse off. "We are going to have to start rebuilding everything, from the bottom up," says Durango. "But for now, we are going to help those who have not been as fortunate as we are. We are here."

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    Compiled by John Aubrey, staff researcher.