Floodwaters Devastate Mexican State Of Tabasco

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 2 — Navy helicopters plucked people from roofs today as rising floodwaters covered much of the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco, putting the state capital, Villahermosa, underwater.

Boats plied the city streets picking up families trapped by the rising waters of the Grijalva River, which has surged 6 feet above its normal height. The river breached its banks in several places over the past few days, sending soldiers and residents to pile up sandbags in an effort to contain the waters.

More than 30,000 people were being housed in shelters, which were full to capacity. Some families preferred to camp out, watching guard over the few possessions they could save, local newspapers reported.

The city, with a population of more than half a million people, was paralyzed, without water or electricity. Newspapers reported that people were forming long lines in the few stores that remained open in search of drinking water and food.

President Felipe Calderón during a televised address to the country late Thursday called the flooding one of the countrys worst natural disasters..

Today he toured Villahermosa, his second visit to the state in a week. On his arrival, local officials asked for more troops to guard against looting.

The state governor, Andrés Granier, who had earlier compared the city to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, said that one million of the states 2.2 million residents were in the path of the flooding. He said that some 80 percent of the state was affected.

One person was reported to have died.

The low-lying state is often hit by flooding. After the last serious flooding in 1999, the state and federal governments launched a project to shore up the levees that protected the city from the two rivers that run around it. But the work, scheduled for completion last year, was never finished.

Whats certain is that the work was never done, that the investments were never made, Interior Secretary Francisco Ramírez Acuña told reporters Thursday.

A cold front brought rain to Tabasco and the neighboring state of Chiapas on Sunday, and it continued steadily for four days. The rain finally stopped Thursday, but a new cold front may bring more rain over the weekend, Mr. Ramírez said.

The water swelled rivers and threatened to overflow reservoirs. Authorities have continued to release water from the reservoir of the Penitas dam in Chiapas, sending it gushing down to the rivers on the plain of Tabasco.

The state of Chiapas also reporting serious flooding in rural areas.

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