President Claudia Sheinbaum has stepped down after the emergency due to the intense rains and subsequent floods in five states of the country that have left, so far, 64 dead and 65 missing while saying that “there were no meteorological conditions” that anticipated the disaster that has affected at least 100,000 homes.
“The first thing (to do) is to provide care, it is our obligation, and we are reinforcing care,” Sheinbaum said in his daily press conference when he was questioned about his feelings when witnessing the magnitude of the emergency.
“Evidently, when you have a home that is full of mud there is great desperation, and the family’s hands are not enough to clean it and a lot of support is required from the government. And that is precisely what we are reinforcing,” he added.
After a weekend where she visited Huauchinango (Puebla) and Poza Rica (Veracruz) to see first-hand the magnitude of the tragedy, the president warned that this Monday she will visit affected towns in the states of Hidalgo and Querétaro.
He also announced that he will hold a meeting with the Ministry of Finance to discuss the issue of resources.
During the weekend, Sheinaum boarded military aircraft to reach the places affected by the rains, went into the shelters, listened to the demands and accepted the claims of the inhabitants, and also promised support to the victims.
Information:
Government estimates 100,000 homes affected by rains in Mexico since October 6
The Government of Mexico reported this Monday 64 people dead and 65 missing, after the heavy rains that hit five states in the center of the country between October 6 and 9, leaving thousands of victims and serious damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure in 111 municipalities.
The number of deaths and missing persons increases
The 64 deaths were reported in each of the prosecutor’s offices in the states of Veracruz (29), Hidalgo (21), Puebla (13) and Querétaro (1), reported Laura Velázquez, head of the National Civil Protection Coordination (CNPC) during the daily presidential conference.
Velázquez also reported 65 people not located in the states of Veracruz (18), Hidalgo (43) and Puebla (4).
In his daily conference, Sheinbaum assured that there was an alert about heavy rains and that normally alerts are issued through Civil Protection when a hurricane, a cyclone, a meteorological phenomenon of this type comes.
“In the case of this area of the country (center), it was warned that there were going to be heavy rains, but there were several phenomena that occurred (…) that generated this intense rain that was not expected to be of this magnitude. That is, there was no scientific meteorological condition that could tell us that the rain was going to be of this magnitude,” said the president.
In his turn, the head of the Secretary of the Navy, Raymudno Morales, explained that Mexico is in the final part of the rainy season, so “the rivers are at a maximum level of capacity and the groundwater tables are quite loaded,” and “the hills are weakened because we have a lot of rain that has fallen throughout the year.”
More context: Intense rains in CDMX cause flooding and affect operations in the AICM
The heavy rainfall that hit the country from October 6 to 9 derived from hurricanes Raymond and Priscilla in the Mexican Pacific, in confluence with several systems in the Gulf of Mexico, left more than 1,800 millimeters (mm) of rain in the five mentioned states.
That is, in just four days, an amount comparable to half the annual average of rainfall was recorded in those regions, which caused thousands of victims and serious damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure in 111 municipalities in those five states.
With information from EFE.
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