Death toll rises to 333 in Mexico floods

President Ernesto Zedillo, who has called the flooding Mexico's worst disaster in a decade, toured the stricken areas on Friday and Saturday and pledged to send more civilian and military personnel to help the victims throughout states along the Gulf of Mexico.

AP PHOTO A boy carries his sisters through the mud left in the Mexican town of Xicotepec de Juarez after floods devasted the town and surrounding areas last week .

''We won't fail you,'' he promised Saturday.

But in Villahermosa, a city of 465,000 people that is 400 miles east of Mexico City, many weren't willing to accept promises. Much of the city has been under water for a week, and the water was rising yesterday.

The death toll, according to officials in the affected states, stood at 333.

But hundreds more were missing, and unofficial counts by local newspapers - based in part on witness accounts - put the death toll as high as 600.

As the rain continued to fall, authorities in the town of Tenango worked into the night to prevent another disaster after a foot-wide crack appeared in the face of a turn-of-the-century, U.S.-built dam, which towers above the town.

Dump trucks brought 300 loads of gravel and rock, dumping it in front of the dam. Three thousand residents of Tenango were evacuated to nearby Nuevo Necaxa.

''The water was beginning to come over the top of the dike. The engineers thought it was going to break,'' said evacuee Jose Luis Gonzalez, 40.

Soldiers dug into mountains of mud that covered villages and towns across the region, searching for the smell of decaying flesh that would signal a victim nearby. Their work was made harder by fresh storms yesterday.

As heavy rains poured across the region, anger mounted among survivors, who accused the government of arriving late and making bad decisions.

On Saturday night and again yesterday morning, hundreds of Villahermosa residents blocked a highway in the city's north to protest government-built barriers that have kept water from pouring into certain areas, but increased the flooding in others.

Police dragged people by the hair, beat them with batons and used tear gas in an effort to break up the demonstration. They arrested at least 100 people, including eight children and a pregnant woman.

''Instead of helping us, they beat us with sticks. Why?'' said Carmen Arellano..

Most of those arrested were released, but 15 were charged with damaging federal property - the highway.

At Villahermosa's state penitentiary, 100 prisoners staged a small riot Saturday night, shouting from the prison's roof to reporters outside that the prison was flooded.

''We're in the middle of water,'' one screamed. ''We need food and drinking water.''

Gunshots were heard inside, and neighbors reported tear gas, but prison authorities denied any disturbance.

In Teziutlan, where a cliffside cemetery slid down over a neighborhood and buried dozens of people in mud, soldiers searched in the rain for more bodies.

At the town's cathedrthe regional bishop, Monsignor Lorenzo Cardenas Aregullin, led a Mass for the victims of the disaster, and read a message of condolence from Pope John Paul II.

''Why does God conserve our lives?'' the bishop asked. ''So we can be human. So we can help (the victims) however we can.''

Outside the cathedral, residents complained that government help had been late in coming. When neighbors were pulling bodies from the muck on Tuesday, they said, radio stations were reporting no apparent problems in the region. The military, which is leading the rescue effort, didn't arrive until Thursday afternoon.

Many have urged Zedillo to call for foreign aid, but Zedillo has said: ''The Mexicans can do it alone.''

Despite his confidence, the relief effort is daunting. The devastation stretches over such a vast and remote region that it is difficult for rescuers to get aid to many affected places. Rain and fog repeatedly have blocked helicopters from ferrying food and medicine.

Aid organizations set up collection centers in the capital, Mexico City, and appealed for donations of water, food, medicine and clothing.

More than 253,000 people have been affected by the week of flooding throughout the Gulf states. Nearly 70,000 people were being housed in shelters, the Interior ministry said.

Teziutlan's mayor, Jose Sanchez Tinoco, said it may take more than a week to partially restore water service that was cut to 130,000 people when tumbling rocks and rolling mud ripped out water lines.

With drinkable water scarce, officials warned of possible outbreaks of cholera. Authorities in Veracruz state told the government Notimex news agency that they already have seen cases of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne illness, and ''uncountable cases'' of respiratory, skin, and stomach infections.

10-11-99