Hurricane Patricia: 10 Photos of Phenomenal Destruction Mexicans Survived

By Deborah Dupré

UPDATE Mon 28 Oct. 10:00 am PST

All incommunicado communities are now in contact with aid workers and still, no casualties reported in Mexico, according to the Secretary of Social Development Jose Antonio Meade.

Civil Protection DIF of the state of Jalisco, Juan Rafael Quintero Navarro said the state authorized 111 temporary shelters, with another 24 “preventively”, giving care in 19 municipalities and aid to an average of 8,750 people Saturday. He said the state will continue providing for all those in need.

ORIGINAL STORY

Hurricane Patricia left at least 3000 families with nothing and 10,000 people affected. Homes, schools and health centers “entirely disappeared.” Unaccounted as of late Oct. 24 were 400 communities with thousands of people. Flooding, mudslides and collapsed roads cut their communications and aid, according to local reports. Thousands more lost their income earning potential with crops flattened and flooded. Repeated “no damage” news headlines clearly dismiss Mexico’s most marginalized people’s human rights and their new struggle in Patricia’s aftermath.

Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT) Gerardo Ruiz Espraza stated in a press conference that 15 states suffer damage from Hurricane Patricia with people suffering the most in four states: Colima, Jalisco, Michoacan and Nayarit.

[Hurricane Patricia Flooding, Landslides. Amazing Videos]

Photo credit: Slate

400 communities isolated without provisions, status unknown

The Category 5 hurricane that hit Mexico’s southwestern coastal region with at least 165 mph winds left 400 communities isolated and some 100 damaged houses in one area alone. In Arteaga, the largest municipality in the state of Michaocan, the city mayor Vallejo Bernardo Zepeda said, according to Progreso News, that roads collapsed; flooding devoured some homes and swamped many homes; and mudslides sent mud into remaining homes.

In the community of La Junta, Tierra Calente municipality, the health center became detached from the ground and collaped. Also there, an elementary school entirely disappeared along with other buildings, El Universal reports.

Constant rain overflowed the Carrizal River, pulling cars and homes into it, according to Progreso.

Photo above: Arteaga House in Michoacan. Credit: Progreso.

Photo credit: Storm Front Weather, Twitter

Wood and brick homes with tin and palm leaf roofs of 40 families in one village alone, Chamela fishing village, were flattened and blown away when Patricia made landfall as a monster in Jalisco state. Those fishing village families survived only because they had evacuated to a shelter before Patricia made landfall 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Chamela. Saturday, those villagers returned to pick up the pieces Saturday.

“We have nothing. My property’s gone,” said Griselda Hernandez, standing in her fishing village Chamela, looking at the space with no walls nor roof that had been her home until Friday night, when she became an environmental refugee.

“I’ve lost everything, I don’t even have anywhere to sleep,” said Roberto Gonzalez, a farmer, as he salvaged belongings from mangled debris of trash, toys and branches strewn across Chamela near the coast of Jalisco state, directly hit.

Hurricane Patricia had tossed Sr. Gonzalez’s mattress some 20 feet (6 meters) from his house and blew a gaping hole where his roof once set. Power lines were knocked down in what electricity board repairment said was some of the worst damage they’d ever seen, according to Reuters.

Mexican Red Cross (Cruz Roja Mexicana) had aid to those in need within hours – not days like American Red Cross after Katrina. Cruz Roja and other major charities have been on the ground providing emergency food and potable water to tens of thousands of Hurricane vicitms without provisions, many without homes or access to where their homes once were. Thus far, Cruz Roja has delivered over 55,000 kilos of humanitarian aid.

Today, Cruz Roja hoped aid via helicopters would soon reach communities left stranded: Embocadero, San Jose de Mosco, and Zapatlan, according to El Universal on Sunday.

Photos: Red Cross workers supplying food, water and other emergency survival emergency goods after Hurricane Patricia. Credit: Cruz Roja Mexicana

At least one fatality was from an accident when a road collapsed, swallowing the truck, killing at least one person and injuring two others. Patricia caused many landslides and floods.

Photo credit: El Universal

In the state of Michoacan, the mayor of Coahuayana, Porfirio Mendoza said that so far, they know 400 homes were devatstated, leaving those families homeless refugees. Also, severe flooding in communities Ejido Coahuayana, Mouth Epiza and San Vincente has left at least 250 families stranded in shelters. Furthermore, due to destruction of crops – bananas and papayas – 3000 families lost their source of employment. (El Universal)

Photo: Banana and papaya plantations flattened and flooded means over 12,000 people without income support. Photo Credit: Yahoo, Twitter

Mexico’s Telmex, Telcel and Telemex Foundation have thus far delivered eight tons of humanitarian aid to Hurricane Patricia victims. These organizations have provided 2000 mattresses, 2000 blankets, 480 kilos of fresh produce, four water treatment plants with a capacity of 80 litres per minute. In a statement, the humanitarians said their aid was going straight to the people in El Paraiso, Colima and Pet, Jalisco. Public telephoney is offering free calls in Manzanillo, Colima and Puerta Vallarta.

The Fund for Natural Disasters has supplied humanitarian aid: 26,866 aid kits, 53,735 blankets, 53,735 mats, over 13,000 cleaning kits, over 13,000 personal hygiene kits, and 218,000 litres of purified water. 10,000 personal  hygiene kits were delivered to Cihuatlan Base Municipality.

Despite the destruction and suffering, the loss of homes and jobs for thousands, news media continues reporting “no damage.” For example,  USA Today reports, No major damage as Hurricane Patricia remnants move north; NY Times, reports, Mexico Spared Major Damage by Giant Storm, and  AFP,  Hurricane flattens Mexico homes, but no major disaster. One of the latest is Yahoo News on Twitter:

Because of well coordinated and conducted government evacuation communications; government emergency response officials allowing aid to reach where needed; aid workers serving the needs of those most in need; Mexican people not allowing deaths and the goodwill of shelter workers providing for evacuees — deaths were “not allowed.”

SCT Secreatry Espraza said, “The Mexican population acted with maturity, allowing no loss of life.”

Nevertheless, thousands of Mexicans are suddenly homeless and jobless. If thousands of Americans’ homes flooded, or just disappeared in the night, or had no rooftops in the morning; and they were picking through rubble to find anything of value, knowing they’d also lost their livelihoods, and if 400 communities remained without contact — imagine the media frenzy, the outpouring of love and concern from people far and wide.

Twitter user Josh Morgerman ‏ Tweeted Sunday afternoon, “Mexicans in towns in #PATRICIA‘s core path would be rightly angered by suggestion it was overblown. It missed cities, but 4 them: EXTREME.”

COPYRIGHT. Deborah Dupre. 2015. All rights reserved.

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