200,000 affected by floods in Mexico

Villahermosa (Mexico), Oct 6 (IANS/EFE) Some 200,000 people have been affected by floods in southeastern Mexico, authorities said.

Floods triggered by heavy rains have devastated the Mexican state of Tabasco where some 200,000 people have been affected, officials said Tuesday.

Thirteen of the state’s 17 municipalities have suffered extensive damage from the flooding.

Civil Protection spokesperson Roberto Lopez said 2,450 cubic meters of water per second was pouring into the rivers of Tabasco from the Penitas hydroelectric dam which has threatened the municipalities of Centro, Cunduacan, Nacajuca and Jalpa de Mendez.

“We continue evacuating communities because we forecast that the rivers will rise even more,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tabasco Governor Andres Granier has urged the residents of the state capital Villahermosa to abandon their homes because the Carrizal river is expected to overflow its banks and cause further damage in the area.

“We’re concerned about their lives and that is what I want them to understand,” Granier said. Of the 15,000 people who should evacuate from the affected areas, only 7,000 have agreed to leave their homes, while the rest have decided to stay where they are, the Civil Protection said.

In Anacleto Canabal, the residents are resisting evacuation because they think the government is “exaggerating”.

“If we go, robbers will get into our houses and will leave us with nothing,” Isabelino Cadena, a local resident, told EFE.

Hundreds of workers are building a giant wall of sandbags to keep the Carrizal river from flooding Anacleto as occurred in 1999 and 2007, when it was totally submerged.

–IANS/EFE