DALLAS (ABP) — Hundreds of thousands of people were driven from their homes in southern Mexico after that region's worst-ever flooding, prompting assistance from several Baptist groups in the United States.
When more than a week of heavy rains caused the Grijalva River to burst its banks, floods displaced up to 800,000 people in the state of Tabasco. At least 19 people died, and dozens are missing and presumed dead, after a Nov. 4 mudslide buried the San Juan de Grijalva community in the state of Chiapas, reported the Los Angeles Times.
Texas Baptist Men mobilized a disaster-relief team to serve in Tabasco. Meanwhile, both the Baptist World Alliance and the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board sent $10,000 to Baptists in the region.
“Because of the heavy rains and the flood, the people have lost all their belongings — houses, vehicles, food, clothes and personal items,” said C. P. Raul Castellanos Fernandez, chief executive officer of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico. “Seventy percent of the state of Tabasco has been flooded.”
Lilia Aguilera de Maltez from Luz Bautista, the Mexican Baptist newspaper, reported speaking with leaders in Tabasco who described a “desperate situation,” particularly in Villahermosa.
“There are several church buildings under water,” she wrote in a Nov. 1 e-mail. “There is no food left in the supermarkets. There is no potable water. They cannot withdraw money from the banks. The highway to Cardenas is blocked. And all the trucks with food supplies cannot get into the city.”
Texas Baptist Men responded to a request from Baptist leaders in Villahermosa to provide emergency food service. The organization sent a mobile unit from South Texas and workers in Dallas prepared two water-purification units for transport to Tabasco.
TBM Disaster Relief Director Gary Smith sent out a request Nov. 7 for trained volunteers who could serve in southern Mexico through Thanksgiving. The Baptist General Convention of Texas authorized the purchase of food supplies that would allow volunteers to serve up to 40,000 meals a day for three days.
“We're going on faith, because the money isn't there” in the disaster-relief fund for a long-term response, Smith noted. “We're just trying to respond to the needs at the invitation of the Baptist pastors in Villahermosa.”
Tabasco, one of Mexico's poorest and most isolated areas, suffered a similar deluge and mudslide in 1999 that left more than 600 people dead.
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