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Mexico Flood makes one million people swamped

Military Bringing Aid to Tabasco After Floods

Tabasco 80 % under water after Mexico flood

By Brendan Walsh , with AP report found at bloomberg.com November 2, 2007

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's military brought food, water and clothing to the southern state of Tabasco and helicopters and boats searched for stranded victims of flooding that has swamped the homes of 900,000 people.

Health officials said that there may be outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases as 70 percent of Tabasco sits under water, according to the report. Eighty percent of the capital Villahermosa was flooded.

Weather forecasters are predicting more rain in coming days, the AP said. Some of the rivers in the state are continuing to rise past flood stages, the report said.

President Felipe Calderon said in a nationally televised speech last night that the situation was extraordinarily grave, the AP said. Local banks have established charitable accounts for donations to victims of the floods, the report said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brendan Walsh in Mexico City at Bwalsh8@bloomberg.net

Thousands flee flooding weather in Mexico

Residents of Villahermosa, the capital of the state of Tabasco, are rescued in boats by the Mexican Navy Thursday.

GILBERTO VILLASANA: AFP/Getty Images

By ANTONIO VILLEGAS Associated Press Nov. 2, 2007 found at chron.com

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico — Thousands of people fled a flooded region of Mexico's swampy Gulf Coast today, hiking out on foot and jumping from rooftops into rescue helicopters. President Felipe Calderon, flying over a state that was nearly swallowed by rising rivers, said it was one of Mexico's worst recent natural disasters.

A week of heavy rains caused area rivers to overflow, leaving at least 70 percent of the swampy, oil-rich state of Tabasco under water. Much of the state capital, Villahermosa, looked like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, with murky water reaching to rooftops.

At least one death was reported and nearly all services, including drinking water and public transportation, were shut down.

A 10-inch (25-centimeter) natural gas pipeline sprung a leak after flooding apparently washed away soil underneath it, but it was unclear if other facilities operated by the state-run Petroleos Mexicanos had suffered damage.

Rain gave way to sunshine today but weather forecasters predicted more precipitation in the coming days. The flooding was not related to Hurricane Noel, which pounded the Caribbean.

Tabasco state floods every year around this time, but even flood-weary residents were taken by surprise this year. Workers were forced to protect the city's famous Olmec statues by placing sandbag collars beneath their enormous stone heads.

Tens of thousands of people were still stranded on rooftops or inside the upper floors of their homes. Rescue workers used tractors, helicopters, jet skis and boats to ferry people to safety, while others swam through poisonous-snake-infested waters to reach higher ground.

Calderon was meeting with state officials, flying over the affected areas and visiting a makeshift shelter.

In a televised address late Thursday, he called on Mexicans to donate emergency supplies to help the 900,000 people affected. The government trucked in bottled water, food and clothing.

"The situation is extraordinarily grave. This is one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the country," Calderon said.

Even though today was a holiday, with much of Mexico marking Day of the Dead, several banks remained open to accept donations into accounts established for the flood victims.

Mexico rallied around the disaster, with people across the country contributing money and supplies. Mexican television stations dedicated entire newscasts to the flooding, and even morning entertainment shows switched their format from yoga and home improvement to calls for aid.

Food and clean drinking water were extremely scarce, and federal Deputy Health Secretary Mauricio Hernandez warned against outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases.

"With so many people packed together there is a chance that infectious diseases could spread," Hernandez said.

Officials tested for 600 suspected cases of cholera, but none was positive, he said. The waterborne sickness, which is often fatal, had not been reported in Mexico for at least six years.

Hernandez said the government had sent 20,000 Hepatitis A vaccinations and were giving booster shots to children to prevent outbreaks. Efforts to provide medical attention were hampered after at least 50 hospitals and medical centers were flooded.

Soldiers evacuated the historic center of the state capital, Villahermosa, Thursday night as the waters of the Grijalva River burst through dikes of sandbags and toppled a retention wall, flooding the city's bus station and open-air market.

Safe refuges were scarce: Parking garages and any other dry structures were converted into temporary shelters.

Guadalupe de la Cruz, a receptionist at the Hotel Calinda Viva Villahermosa, located in an elevated area of the city, said the hotel's meeting rooms are being used as shelters for employees' families. De la Cruz said the 240-room hotel was completely booked, the majority of the guests residents who had fled their homes.

Many victims were being transferred to nearby cities unaffected by the floods. Highways that weren't covered with water were packed with residents fleeing in cars and on foot.

Villahermosa resident Mauricio Hernandez, 27, who is not related to the federal official, paid a taxi to bring him to Cardenas, a city 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Villahermosa. From there, Hernandez planned to hop a bus to the port city of Coatzacoalcos.

"We are leaving because we cannot live like this," he said. "We don't have any water, and the shelters are full. Where are we going to go?"

State officials sent 50 buses to a museum in the capital where hundreds gathered.

"We wanted to stay in the city but it is no longer possible," said Jorge Rodriguez, 43.

"We have lost everything."

People evacuate a flooded area in Tabasco, Mexico, Thursday. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/America Rocio

Massive flooding along Mexico’s Gulf coast strands thousands on rooftops

By Antonio Villegas, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, November 2, 2007 found at chroniclejournal.com

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico - Military trucks hauled bottled water, food and clothing to Mexico’s flooded Gulf coast Friday as rescue workers in helicopters and boats worked furiously to help tens of thousands of victims, many stranded on rooftops.

With a week of heavy rains causing flooding across nearly all of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, and food and drinking water scarce, health officials warned of the possibility of epidemics of cholera and other waterborne diseases.

An estimated 900,000 people have had their homes flooded, damaged or cut off, and as of Thursday 300,000 still had not been rescued, Tabasco Gov. Andres Granier said. Police, soldiers and others were still trying to reach them.

Officials said it was becoming difficult to find a safe place to put refugees and in some cases parking garages and any other dry structures were being used as temporary shelters.

Dozens of hospitals and medical centres were also flooded, complicating treatment of the sick.

Tabasco state floods every year around this time, and many poor, low-lying neighbourhoods have grown accustomed to spending half a year with the first floor of their home under water.

But this year’s flooding has taken even flood-weary residents by surprise, inundating the state capital of Villahermosa and leaving the city’s famous Olmec statues with water up to their enormous stone chins.

The heavy rains, which are not related to tropical storm Noel that has been pounding the Caribbean, have caused rivers to overflow, leaving at least 70 per cent of the state and 80 per cent of the capital under water.

Forecasters predicted more rain in the coming days.

At least one death was reported. Nearly all services, including drinking water and public transportation, were shut down in Villahermosa.

"The situation is extraordinarily grave: This is one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the country," President Felipe Calderon said in a televised address Thursday night.

Several Mexican banks established special accounts into which residents could donate money for the victims, many of whom have lost everything, including their homes.

"Nobody can stand around with his arms crossed," Calderon said. "We can’t and won’t abandon our brothers and sisters in Tabasco."

The Grijalva River, one of two large waterways ringing Villahermosa, has risen two metres above its "critical" level and gushed into the city’s centre. Authorities said some of the rivers were continuing to rise.

In Villahermosa, dozens of survivors anxious about relatives and friends crowded outside government offices seeking assistance. Others waded despondently through waist-deep water or wandered along highways leading out of the capital.

"We lost everything," said Manuel Gonzalez, whose house was swallowed by the floodwaters early Thursday. "I left without one peso in my pocket and I can’t find my siblings."

The state of Chiapas, which borders Tabasco to the south, also reported serious flooding, with officials there estimating that more than 100,000 people had been affected.

Mexico oil exports on hold

By Catherine Bremer Tue Oct 30, 2007 © Reuters2007All rights reserved.

MEXICO CITY, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Mexico's main Gulf coast oil ports remained closed on Tuesday due to stormy weather, although state energy monopoly Pemex said shipments could resume later in the day if conditions improve.

The ports of Pajaritos, Cayo Arcas and Dos Bocas were shut for a third day after bad weather hit on Sunday, forcing Pemex to halt 600,000 barrels per day of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico due to an inventory build-up at the closed ports.
Pemex spokesman Carlos Ramirez said if conditions calmed down later in the day, ships should be able to leave port, meaning the closed offshore wells could be restarted.
However port officials said the weather remained rough and they doubted ships would leave port before Wednesday.
"It's still pretty strong," Vladimir Romero at Dos Bocas said by telephone, adding that another cold front was forecast to be on its way. "The weather's bad. I don't know when it will die down."
An official at Cayo Arcas port said there was no noticeable improvement there either.
The transport ministry described conditions along the Gulf coast as foggy and rainy with 35 mph (56 kph) winds and 44 mph (70 kph) gusts. Waves were 5 meters (16 feet) high in places.
The ministry will issue its next port closures bulletin at around 4 p.m. (2200 GMT).
Pemex, a top-three supplier of crude oil to the United States, said it could only restart the wells once ships began emptying storage tanks at ports which were full after disruption to exports from another cold front last week.
"It is hoped that in the course of the day ... the flow can be reestablished," Ramirez said.
"Once we start moving the product from our inventory, then the production process will start up again, which should happen relatively fast. The boats are there waiting, Pemex is ready to supply them, it's just that weather conditions aren't right."
The Pacific port of Salina Cruz, which ships 300,000 bpd of crude to the U.S. West coast and Asia, did reopen on Tuesday.

STORMS, SPILLS, SLIDING RESERVES

Pemex, which normally produces around 3.1 million barrels per day and exports around 1.7 million bpd, is looking at a third consecutive day with its output down by a fifth.
Last week's storm caused an offshore drilling platform to keel over and hit an adjacent rig, sparking an oil and natural gas leak and leaving 21 oil workers dead as they tried to flee in emergency life rafts in heaving seas and strong winds.
The storms are the latest headache for Pemex as it grapples with declining yields at its Cantarell oil field, bomb threats from a Marxist rebel group and after Hurricane Dean hit its third-quarter oil output.
Pemex, also under fire this week for spilling 10,000 barrels of fuel in Veracruz state which oozed down rivers into the sea, is battling to restore oil output to 2004 peaks while reversing a slide in proved reserves to nine years' worth.
Energy Minister Georgina Kessel told a business forum in the northern city of Monterrey on Tuesday that Mexico had plenty more oil, but reaching it would be tricky.
Mexico has yet to confirm seismic tests indicating some 55 billion barrels of new deposits, much of it in deep Gulf of Mexico waters, but Kessel said total reserves could jump from 45 billion barrels to 100 billion, or 61 years' worth.
"The oil in Mexico has not run out, what we have to do is be very creative to make sure these prospective reserves are converted into proved reserves," she said. (Additional reporting by Robin Emmott in Monterrey)

© Reuters2007All rights reserved.