collapsed hillsides, sent rivers over their banks and left at least 15
people dead or missing in the floodwaters, officials said Friday.
The rain, which began early in the week and peaked
Thursday, relented by Friday morning, providing officials with their
first good look at the damage.
More than half of the country was affected. Hardest hit was the western state of
Rains were severe in the mountainous zone that is
famous as a reserve for Monarch butterflies. At least 15,000 residents
and 2,000 homes in
Three children died when their home in
Two children drowned trying to cross the flood-swollen Chapulin river in the central state of
In metropolitan
where flooding is an annual hassle during seasonal rains that begin in
spring, several hundred families from the working-class Chalco
community were evacuated early Friday after a sewage canal overflowed
on the city’s edge, spilling a river of waste.
Another 650 families were forced to flee homes in the capital’s impoverished
district. Rainfall reaching nearly an inch an hour caused widespread
power outages and swamped traffic under water that reached bus windows.
The Mexican military was summoned to build sandbags
dikes. According to some reports, it was the first time troops had been
mobilized in an emergency in
“We are experiencing one of the most difficult emergencies we have had in the city,” said Mayor
There was a silver lining: officials said the copious rain had filled reservoirs outside
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
