Thousands flee flooded Mexico areas

As thousands of people waited for flights out of the flood-ravaged state of Tabasco where as many as 1 million have been displaced, a handful more made their way Sunday to the international airport here.

“We had a half a tank of gas in the rental car and we thought, ‘What are we waiting for?’ ” said Francoise Cerceau, who drove more than 100 miles east from Villahermosa early Sunday with her husband and 14-year-old son to escape the disaster.

They were among the lucky few to get a flight to Mexico City. Back in Villahermosa, the flooded capital of Tabasco, officials said they had rescued 39,000 people stranded by floodwaters and had given shelter to 75,000.

Thousands of others left the state by car and bus. With more than two-thirds of his state covered in water, Gov. Andres Granier said Sunday that his first priority was opening more roads for truckloads of food, water and medicine heading into this southeastern Gulf state.

“We won’t rest until our state is back to the way it was,” he said.

Civilian volunteers joined military and federal police Sunday as they continued retrieving thousands of men, women and children from rooftops. Many of them were out of food and water. One person was reported killed in Tabasco last week. Officials in the neighboring state of Chiapas said Sunday that four people had died there, down from an earlier report of seven.

Once the waters recede, Mexican officials said Sunday, as many as 500,000 people will return to find their homes damaged or destroyed. Many areas still reported water levels as high as two stories.

The extent of the damage is unknown. Thousands of people have been reported missing, and most of the state’s crops and factories were flooded. There was only limited electricity and phone service, making communication difficult. More than 100 looters have been arrested, according to the newspaper Tabasco Hoy.

As the few stores still open had their shelves stripped of provisions Sunday, by customers and looters, state officials called for volunteers to help distribute emergency provisions that have been arriving by plane and truck. Physicians are also needed to treat various ailments among people staying in shelters created at schools, public buildings and parking garages, state officials said.

Red Cross officials said 520 tons of supplies have landed in Tabasco since floods swamped the state late last week. “People have really responded,” said spokesman Edgar Rosas.

President Felipe Calderon pledged Sunday to provide the resources needed to “protect the life, the security, the health and the heritage of the Tabascans.”

Calderon also recognized flood-related damage in Chiapas and promised government assistance there as well.

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sam.enriquez@latimes.com

Uribe reported from Ciudad del Carmen and Villahermosa, and Enriquez from Mexico City. Times staff writers Reed Johnson and Cecilia Sanchez in The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.