Floods impact a million in Tabasco, Mexico

A million people have been flooded out of their homes in the state of Tabasco, Mexico.  After a week of rains (that ended Thursday), rivers in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas overflowed.  Some parts of the river are 4 meters higher than normal.  It is estimated that 70% of the state of Tabasco is underwater!  It is believed that 300,000 people may still be trapped.  A massive rescue operation is underway.

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Crops have been 100% wiped out, and a fifth of the country’s oil production has been halted.  Houses were just swallowed up, and cities look like lakes.  Villahermosa (Tabasco’s capitol), home to over 335,000, is 80% underwater after flooding and collapsing dikes let the water pour in.  Clean drinking water is no longer available, and rescue teams are rushing in to try to save lives and avoid epidemics.

Tabasco is home to the famous Olmec head monuments.  On Monday they already had several feet of water and had piled sandbags to protect the artifacts.

See a video (Quicktime) of the flooding here..

Relief agencies are asking for help from other Mexican states to get supplies to people in time.  You can help too, by contacting Samaritan’s Purse (USA site with article), who has already sent an emergency team to the area.  Call them to give directly to the project.

Interestingly enough, I just did a presentation on natural disasters in my class this past week.  I had no idea, of course, that this massive a disaster would strike Mexico a few days later.  I talked about several major disasters (Mexico City earthquake – 1985, Saguenay Flood in Canada 1996, Vargas Mudslides in Venezuela 1999, and the California Wildfires this year), and shared from Romans 8 – creation groans, not with hopeless agony but with the pains of childbirth – the hope of a better world.  Meanwhile, let’s pray that God’s love – a glimpse of the new world – will be shown in this tragedy.