Floods Cause 50,000 Casualties in Mexico
 An Lu - Xinhua
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| | View of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. (AFP/Roberto Schmidt) |
Mexico City - The passing of Hurricanes Dean, Felix and Henriette through Mexican territory has brought heavy rainfalls and widespread floods, causing around 50,000 casualties.
Inhabited zones and farmed land in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, northeastern states of Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi in central Mexico were flooded, with the National Water Department (CNA) saying Friday that "a very delicate situation is underway" in the region.
At least 10,000 homes were inundated in northern Veracruz since the main rivers in the Gulf-of-Mexico region were overflowed.
The level of the Panuco river, the most important in Veracruz, keeps rising as the highland witnesses continuous heavy rainfalls.
Local reports said the river's water level had increased 400 percent. It width, who normally stands at six meters, reached 22 at midday Thursday.
At least 11,500 people are in towns isolated by the floods. State officials have asked the federal government to declare disaster zones in seven of the hardest hit municipalities, including El Higo, Temporal, Panuco and Pueblo Viejo.
Veracruz's governor Fidel Herrera said at least 30,000 people lost their homes and all their belongings, of whom 25,000 are lodged in shelters provided by federal, state and municipal governments.
Officials estimate there are some 17,000 hectares of farmland affected by floods in the municipalities of Panuco, Pueblo Viejo and El Higo.
In Tamaulipas state, at least 750 homes are flooded.
Some 3,000 families in Tampico and Altamira, coastal towns in the Gulf of Mexico, have been dislodged due to overflows of nearby rivers.
The Mexican Army is carrying out Plan DN-III, a special program against disasters, but a lot of people refuse to leave their homes for fear of being looted. |
Vallarta Weddings
News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2007 
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