Chalco Flood – Day 9!

Imagine having a metre or two of sewage water in your house for 9 DAYS.  You have nowhere to take a bath, nothing to cook with, and no food even if you could cook it.

This is day 9 after the water flooded into Chalco, a few minutes from our house, after heavy rains hit Mexico.  The disaster affected thousands of people.  The houses will never be the same.

In some areas where the water has receded, you can see how bad things actually are.  The sewage water rushed into people’s houses and pooled in there, now leaving filthy sewage sludge in each house.  Bed, fridges, clothes, stoves, TVs, microwaves … many things are now just garbage, to be left in the street and hauled away.

One of the concerns, naturally, is that disease is spreading because of the conditions.  Skin deseases and "pink eye" are the biggest concerns at the moment.

I took some brief footage today (just over 2 minutes) to show you how the water has receded in some areas, though if you look close you can still see people in boats and a car with water up to the middle of its windows.  Some cleanup has begun, though it’s amazing how little help there has been.

You can also see, at the beginning, people from our church serving hot breakfasts and lots of people enjoying them.

Once the water goes down, we hope to be able to give out some pre-boxed provisions (despensas) door to door.  If you would like to help, these are around $10 each – please contact us if you’re interested in providing one or more.  This one pictured above is a typical despensa.  It contains basic food supplies.