Countywide : Effort to Aid Flood Victims in Tijuana

Several Ventura County businesses have teamed up to collect food, clothing, bedding and other supplies for Tijuana flood victims.

La Casa del Mexicano, a Santa Paula social service agency, La Gloria Market and three Spanish- and English-language radio stations in Oxnard are leading the relief effort, organizers said.

Plans to drive several vanloads of baby clothes, diapers, canned food, blankets and construction materials across the border this week were thwarted because of continuing rains, said Raul Cervantes, president of La Casa del Mexicano.

Recent flooding in Tijuana is the worst in the city’s history, government officials said. Fourteen residents have died as a result of the flooding and another 4,000 have been left homeless.

“Now, more than ever, we need to help,” Cervantes said. “They are like our brothers and sisters. We know these people now have no place to go, no food. Many are homeless. They lost everything.” Collections for the flood victims will continue through Thursday, Cervantes said, when several Ventura County residents will drive supplies into the Mexican border city.

The collection sites in Ventura County are La Casa del Mexicano, 218 S. 11th St., Santa Paula, noon to 8 p.m., and La Gloria Market, 430 S. Oxnard Blvd, Oxnard, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monetary donations are being collected by La Casa del Mexicano and the Ventura County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Checks can be sent to the Santa Paula organization in care of “Tijuana Relief,” or to the Ventura County Chapter of the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 25660, Ventura 93002. For more information, call La Casa del Mexicano at 525-9987.