 |
|
|
 Editorials | Issues | November 2007 
Devastation Continues After Mexico Floods
 Independent Television News
go to original
 |  | We too depend on dams, on boards and on the defences we've built to go on, but this time nature's force was stronger. But it won't defeat us, we will win the battle.
- Tabasco Governor Andres Granier |  | |
Severe floods in the Mexican state of Tabasco have continued to cause devastation, with hundreds of thousands being made homeless.
Almost 80 per cent of the oil-rich state of Tabasco is covered in water, although the level of some rivers has begun to recede slightly.
Most of the streets in the state capital Villahermosa are still flooded, and police forces have been patrolling the streets by boat to try and convince reluctant residents to evacuate their homes and move to shelters.
Many victims have spent the better part of a week trapped by the flood waters, and authorities have warned of a possible health crisis.
Emergency shelters are already holding 69,000 flood victims, but tens of thousands more are leaving the state entirely, as food, water and power become increasingly scarce.
There have been reports of looting and warnings of possible disease outbreaks in the state, on the Gulf of Mexico.
Supplies and medical aid have streamed into the region, but still little food and water is available in stores in Villahermosa, where intermittent rains fell on Saturday.
Tabasco Governor Andres Granier said that the "tragedy" was bigger than that caused by the flooding in New Orleans in 2005.
He said: "We too depend on dams, on boards and on the defences we've built to go on, but this time nature's force was stronger."
"But it won't defeat us, we will win the battle," he added.
Nearly all services, including drinking water and public transportation, have been shut down as more than 900,000 people had their homes flooded, damaged or cut off.
One man died earlier in the week in Tabasco, and in neighbouring Chiapas state the death toll rose to eight after the department of civil defence reported finding seven bodies between Friday and Saturday.
The dead included five adults swept away by swollen rivers, a 25-year-old undocumented Honduran immigrant who drowned while trying to cross a river, and an 8-year-old girl who fell from a bridge. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us