http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=07...;show_article=1One million people hit by Mexico floods
Nov 2 12:49 PM US/Eastern
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Mexico Floods Wreak Havoc
Rescuers on Friday worked on saving hundreds of thousands of people trapped by the worst floods on record in Mexico's southern state of Tabasco.
Overnight, military troops evacuated the center of the state's capital Villahermosa, while hospital patients in the city of 750,000 were flown to neighboring states as floodwaters continued to rise.
The disastrous floods affected more than one million residents, or about half Tabasco's population.
"New Orleans was small compared to this," said state Governor Andres Granier, in reference to the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed about 1,000 people in the southern US city alone.
Only one fatality was recorded so far in Tabasco, but the floods have caused widespread devastation.
The oil-rich state the size of Belgium is 80 percent underwater, and 850 towns have been flooded, officials said.
And with more rain forecast over the coming days, there was no respite in sight.
"Of the 2.1 million Tabasquenos, more than half are suffering from this serious problem that has not been experienced in the history of Tabasco," Granier told reporters late Thursday.
"Around 300,000 people are still trapped in their homes in different locations," Granier said, adding that army and navy helicopters and rescue boats were working on rescue efforts.
Tabasco "is devastated," he said of the 29,000 square kilometer (11,000 square mile) state on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. "100 percent of crops are lost."
President Felipe Calderon urged Mexicans to donate aid to flood victims.
"The situation is extraordinarily grave," he said in an address to the nation on Thursday, calling the flooding "one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the country."
Many Tabasquenos "have lost their homes, their belongings, their crops, and the means to maintain their children," he said. "Others remain in their homes but with no access to food, water or medicine."
Calderon earlier ordered the secretaries of national defense, navy, social development and environment as well as his chief of cabinet to travel to Tabasco to personally direct rescue and aid efforts.
Some 400 doctors and health workers were deployed to more than 300 towns in the region to detect any outbreak of infections, according to Tabasco's civil protection agency.
The floods began last week when a cold front brought heavy rain that caused the Grijalva, Carrizal and Puxcatan rivers to burst their banks.
Soldiers and state authorities had placed more than 700,000 sand bags along the rivers to prevent flooding, but the water rose above the barriers.
The floods worsened over the past three days as authorities drained water from two dams in the neighboring state of Chiapas to prevent them from exceeding their capacity.
The water rose again Thursday in the state capital of Villahermosa, which was flooded Wednesday after the Grijalva River burst its banks.
Military troops organized the evacuation of the Villahermosa city center overnight after hundreds of Villahermosa residents refused to leave their flooded homes amid reports of looting in the city.
"There's no policing," a Villahermosa woman told reporters. "The thieves climb on the roofs and open the doors through there."
In Chiapas, authorities declared a state of emergency in 22 municipalities while 2,500 people have been taken to shelters.
The Federal Electricity Commission also said it was unclear when it would be able to close the spigots in the Penitas dam in Chiapas.
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