Severe Flood in Mexico

Tens of thousands of Mexicans were trapped on rooftops and others clung to lampposts on Thursday after heavy rains flooded nearly the entire southern state of Tabasco.


At least 500,000 people were made homeless and one person was killed in the worst flooding the swampy state has seen in more than 50 years.

President Felipe Calderon said it was one of the worst natural disasters in Mexico's history. "It is getting very serious," Calderon said in a televised address.


Television images showed rescue workers hauling people out turbulent, brown waters that rose as high as the roofs of houses. Children floated down a street in a plastic tub. Officials have said Tabasco lost all of its banana and other crops, and that four-fifths of the state was under water.


The Mexico floods were triggered by storms that have wreaked havoc in the oil industry along Mexico's Gulf coast. Link