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 Editorials | November 2007 
Mexico's Run of Bad Luck
 Haroon Siddique - Guardian Unlimited
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 |  | The country has been hit by some devastating natural disasters, and global warming could make things worse. |  | |
Mexico has had to cope with more than its fair share of natural disasters. As well as floods, the country is exposed to the risks of hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, volcanic eruptions, mudslides, wild fires and extreme temperatures.
The flooding that has devastated Tabasco comes less than two months after Hurricane Henriette struck, causing mudslides on Mexico's southern coast and leaving at least 10 people dead.
And just weeks before Henriette struck, Hurricane Dean, the third strongest Atlantic storm to hit land on record, ploughed across the Yucatán peninsula in August, killing 27 people on its trajectory through Mexico and the Caribbean.
In 1996 the government established Mexico's Fund for Natural Disasters (Fonden) to reduce the country's vulnerability to the impact of such events. The following year, Hurricane Pauline struck near Acapulco, killing at least 131 people. But even that was not enough to get the tropical storm near the top 10 natural disasters in the country.
The worst natural disaster by far was the devastating Mexico City earthquake in 1985, which lasted just 50 seconds but killed 9,500 people and cost the country $4.1bn (£1.97bn), according to the Centre for the Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (Cred).
The country's most expensive disaster, according to Cred, occurred when Hurricane Wilma, the third category 5 (the highest category) tropical storm of the 2005 hurricane season, struck, causing $5bn of damage and affecting a million people. Wilma was the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record.
From 1929 to September 2007, Mexico experienced 27 earthquakes, 47 floods and 66 "wind storms", according to Cred figures. A 2000 report for the Mexican ministry of finance noted that the country had one of the most diverse climates in the world, a factor in the number of natural disasters to afflict it.
The report said there was a threat all year round, with floods and hurricanes occurring between July and December and droughts and forest fires between January and June.
Unfortunately, there is little prospect of respite for the Mexican people. With the threat posed by climate change bringing with it higher global temperatures and rising sea levels, the incidence and severity of at least some of these events could increase. |
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