The population in the low-lying neighborhoods of the city desperately seeks protection and shelter in the first hours of the flood.
Photo: INPM COE

The Mexican government has extended the period for emergency response to the severe flooding in early November that affected Tabasco, Mexico, to December 20, 2007.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance continues to support the relief and recovery efforts of National Presbyterian Church of Mexico (INPM). INPM has taken the lead in the Action by Churches Together (ACT) Mexico Forum (with support from the ACT Central America Forum*) in responding to this disaster. Currently, a mission of the ACT Central America Forum is accompanying the INPM in the evaluation of damages and analysis of needs.

INPM has maintained the management of 24 shelters, housing an average of 54,000 evacuees.

From the first hours after the first warnings, the INPM activated their Emergency Operations Committee (COE, for its initials in Spanish) for responding. The offices of the COE are located in the headquarters of the Grijalva Usumacinta Presbytery, where the Presbyterian Synod of Tabasco (maximum operating body of the state of Tabasco) was moved.

• The INPM has received and distributed 85 tons of food, 40,000 liters of water, 10 tons of clothing, 5,000 mattress pads and 5,000 blankets. An average of 60 people — youth, pastors and professional men and women — have been present as a volunteer movement that is working day and night to offer services to the affected population.
• Aid is coming from furthest lying states of the Mexican Republic and is being channeled through the General Assembly of the Church to the Synod of Tabasco, at which point the COE then distributes the aid to the six presbyteries throughout the state. The INPM cancelled its General Assembly meeting in Orizaba, Veracruz, to devote funds to the flood response.
• INPM (with assistance from ACT-Central America) is preparing a proposal for ACT Rapid Response Funds to continue with the task of protecting the population from the consequences of the floods, rescue, mobilization, clean up, disinfection, control of vectors and assuring a basic food supply as part of the key identified needs in the final stage of the emergency. An ACT appeal with INPM as the implementing partner is also being considered.
• The extended emergency period should allow for a reduction in the recurring risks brought by the flooding, including the hydraulic and geologic work to remove more than 20 million cubic meters of material that was brought in by a mudslide that destroyed an entire community. This landslide created a natural dam that temporarily held back flooding, but daily it generating a high level of uncertainty in the population of about 400,000 people who were waiting to see if they would need to be evacuated. To date, they are still working on opening a 100-meter wide and one kilometer long canal to serve as an outlet for the water.

Response by the Governor of the State of Tabasco.

Carlos Cardenas, members of the INPM Emergency Operations Committee and the President of the General Assembly of the INPM, Presbyter Saul Feria Acosta, were invited to participate in a working breakfast with the governor of the state of Tabasco, Andres Granier.

Photo: INPM COE

The house of the governor, a beautiful mansion enclave in the hills of the city, has been converted into an immense emergency operations camp, where daily they give more than 2,000 medical consultations, they are dispatching hundreds of thousands of hot food rations; food is also being dispensed for more locations farther in the state. This is the first time in the history of the state that the mansion has been open to the public, and from the first days of the disaster, it has lent protection to people from all social levels of Villahermosa.

Some Statistics about the Damage

• The count of damages. A final evaluation of the damages is still unavailable, but the official figures estimate about 1.1 million people were affected. In the rural areas, there is a total loss of crops, and the same is true for livestock in the small, rural family economies. There have been reports of numerous losses in the major livestock industry of the state as well.
• About 20,000 businesses (both large and small) remain closed for sanitary measures; they are slowly opening up as the process of the city clean up advances.
• The health alert is focused on the threat of gastroenteritis, Hepatitis A, acute respiratory infections, the flu, rinofaringitis, rotavirus, cholera, etc. About 8,000 people are showing signs of mycosis and other skin diseases.
• The psychological impact on the population is evident, with diverse upheavals in mental health among the population, given the scale of damages suffered and the uncertainness created by repeated announcements of the threat of the damns breaking due to water that has accumulated along the border with the state of Chiapas.
• Classes have been suspended in 35 percent of the schools and slowly will resume classes to the degree that they are able to establish acceptable sanitary conditions.