As the water recedes, Mexican flood victims must rebuild their lives

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico (CNS) - Filthy water recedes from the city streets. Lights and telephones flash on. Globe-trotting TV crews fly on to the next story.

But for many residents of flood-ravaged southeastern Mexico, their troubles are just beginning. As the pure shock of escaping danger fades away, they wake up to a new harsh reality.

Crops of corn, bananas and beans have been ripped to pieces, robbing many of their only income; the decaying corpses of thousands of cows, pigs and chickens line fields; hundreds of thousands of homes are damaged or destroyed; water supplies to villages are polluted.

"Now is the real test. This is a situation that is going to affect people for months or even years," said Eufemio Flores, emergency coordinator for Caritas Mexico, the local affiliate of the Catholic umbrella organization Caritas Internationalis.

"The evacuation operation was good. But in the past, our government has been notorious for quickly forgetting about the long-term problems of people in disaster zones," he said.

After a week of torrential rain, rivers across southeastern Mexico burst their banks in late October. The water enveloped more than 70 percent of the swampy state of Tabasco, home to 2 million people and the sprawling oil city of Villahermosa. It also wreaked havoc in mountain communities in the neighboring state of Chiapas, unleashing a Nov. 4 landslide that wiped a village completely off the map.

At least 18 people were killed by the floods and dozens are still missing. International observers say the death toll was relatively low because the Mexican government and aid organizations were quick to evacuate people, set up shelters and fly in packages of water, food and medical supplies.

"If there were not such a fast and wide-scale response, the human cost of this tragedy would have been much higher," said Helena Ranchal, regional head of the European Commission's emergency relief fund.

In the farming village of Santa Catalina, just north of Villahermosa, 300 residents crammed into their schoolhouse for a week, eating dry tortillas while their houses were submerged.

When the water finally receded, they clambered out, hungry and tired, to find their crops devastated.

"I don't know what we are going to do. We have nothing for this year's harvest. How are we going to live?" asked Jesus Hilario, staring wide-eyed at the torn up bushels on his watery corn patch.

Tabasco's Economy Ministry reports that the state's agriculture -- which also includes cocoa, sugar cane and citrus -- has been almost completely destroyed for the year, wiping out the income of up to a third of the population.

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Hilario feared that he might have to abandon his home and look for work in another part of Mexico or in the United States. Thousands already have left Tabasco, fleeing to neighboring Veracruz or Mexico City as the waters rose.

Relief crews have brought in food and water to Santa Catalina and across the state. But there is not always enough to go around, and villagers have fought over packages.

Lacking bottled water, villagers drink from wells that have been contaminated as garbage and rotting carcasses were hurled around in floodwaters.

"We tell people in the village not to take water from the wells. But when you have nothing to drink, what are you going to do?" Hilario asked.

Caritas Mexico is planning to distribute packs of disinfectant and train the villagers how to clean the wells, said Flores.

Government doctors also are handing out vaccines for cholera and other diseases. Swarms of mosquitoes eat away at the animal carcasses, then bite humans while people wade through the receding water to get back to their homes.

In the Villahermosa slum of Tierra Colorado, residents continued to live in camps of tarpaulin and cardboard, two weeks after they fled their houses. Their damaged furniture and treasured possessions lay scattered by them on the road, and they cooked meals on makeshift fires.

"We are starting to go crazy living like this," said Jose Wuatla, 48, while his family rested on a torn-up sofa that was dragged from their flooded house. "We have no money left, and we need to get back to work. But it is hard to go out and leave your family like this."

Tierra Colorado residents are scared about a crocodile that has been swimming about the flooded slum streets. Government officials have warned that the floods have swept crocodiles and dangerous snakes from Tabasco's lagoons into the city.

Thousands of refugees continued to fill up the refuges, including one in the city's cathedral.

Among those helping the evacuees was Father Jose Juan Paz, 28, ordained in October just days before the flooding hit.

"We just take things day by day. It is very challenging work. You want to give the people everything they need. But you don't always have the medicine or food to do it," said Father Paz, rushing about the cathedral to organize the arrival of a supply truck. "But it is good to be helping people. That is why I came to the priesthood."

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Some evacuees in the shelters had lost their houses completely, with rushing water from the hills toppling their cinderblock and corrugated-tin structures. Others still had dirty water filling their homes. Julia Flota said her house had survived the flooding but was wrecked when a sack of food and water had been dropped from a helicopter and smashed through her tin roof.

The evacuees said they prayed that money would arrive from the government or aid organizations to repair or rebuild their homes.

"We have to trust in God that the help will come," said Nadia Gomez, sleeping in Villahermosa's St. Anthony of Padua Church with her three children after her home was torn to pieces. "We just don't have the money to build a new house from nothing."

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops