Mexico floods leave 500,000 homeless

Tens of thousands of Mexicans were trapped on rooftops and others clung to lightposts today after heavy rains flooded nearly the entire southern state of Tabasco.

At least 500,000 people were made homeless and one person was killed in the worst flooding the swampy state has seen in more than 50 years, officials said.

The floods began last week and now cover 80 per cent of Tabasco, affecting about one million people, officials said.

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"Of the 2.1 million Tabasquenos, more than half are suffering from this serious problem that has not been experienced in the history of Tabasco," Governor Andres Granier told reporters.

About 30,000 people were placed in 256 state shelters while 300,000 remain trapped in flooded homes, waiting for military helicopters and boats to rescue them, the state government said in a statement.

More than 850 towns have been flooded in the Gulf of Mexico state.

"The amount of water is shocking," said the governor of the 29,000 square kilometre state.

"One hundred per cent of crops are lost. The state is devastated," Granier said.

About 400 doctors and health workers have been deployed to more than 300 towns to detect any outbreak of infections, the state's Civil Protection agency says.

State officials warned that rivers continued to rise one week after the first flooding started.

The floods began last week when a cold front brought heavy rain that caused rivers to break their banks.

Soldiers and state authorities had placed more than 700,000 sandbags along the rivers to prevent flooding, but the water rose above the barriers.

The floods worsened over the past three days as authorities drained water from two dams in the neighbouring state of Chiapas to prevent them from exceeding their capacity. The drainage caused three Tabasco rivers to burst their banks.

The water rose again today in the state capital of Villahermosa, which was flooded yesterday after the Grijalva River burst its banks.

But hundreds of Villahermosa residents refused to leave their flooded homes amid reports of looting in the city of 750,000 people.

"There's no policing," a woman living in Villahermosa told reporters. "The thieves climb on the roofs and open the doors through there."

Chiapas state authorities declared a state of emergency in 22 municipalities while 2,500 people have been taken to shelters.

Granier warned that the flooding could get even worse as forecasters say a new cold front could bring more rain over the weekend.

The Federal Electricity Commission also said it was unclear when it would be able to close the spigots in the Penitas dam in Chiapas.