VILLAHERMOSA, MEXICO — Although many people in this rainy, low-lying tropical city regard last week's catastrophic flood as an act of God or fate, others see it largely as a man-made disaster that could have been anticipated and should have been prevented.
Residents of Tabasco state, one of Mexico's poorest and most isolated areas, have experienced such calamities before, including a 1999 deluge that left more than 600 people dead.
But even as water levels slowly receded this week, environmental activists, opposition politicians and others expressed frustration and anger that more was not done after the 1999 calamity to avoid a replay. They said that the present flooding was fueled by rampant overbuilding, deforestation and wetlands destruction, and the squandering of funds that should have been spent on flood-prevention measures.
"The problem of Tabasco is that corruption continues reigning," said Francisco Sanchez Ramos, a federal congressman who represents Tabasco. "Without doubt, this tragedy could have been avoided."
Tabasco and neighboring Chiapas state continue to struggle with the aftermath of the inundation that has claimed at least 19 lives and left tens of thousands homeless. Tabasco's governor, Andres Granier, has estimated damage at nearly $5 billion and says that many evacuees will not be able to return for months.
Health officials fear outbreaks of diseases such as dengue fever, cholera and malaria. Opportunistic criminals are another concern. As of Tuesday, authorities had arrested 65 suspected looters in Villahermosa, according to the newspaper Tabasco Hoy.
In Chiapas, rescue workers continued searching for about two dozen residents of San Juan Grijalva who were feared dead. Their village, 45 miles upstream from here, was virtually wiped out late Sunday after part of a rain-soaked mountainside slid into the Grijalva River, producing one or more huge waves of muddy water that swept houses off their foundations.
President Felipe Calderon has visited the area four times since the flooding began and has pledged to create a $670-million reconstruction fund. But previous efforts to create a modern flood-control infrastructure here succumbed to corruption, cronyism and mismanagement, a number of people said.
"The resources that were given from [1999] and 2000 for the matter of inundation were badly applied, badly handled," said Hugo Ireta, a member of the Santo Tomas ecological association. "The state government gave the concession for these works to people that had no idea of what was needed, that never did studies."
