PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico - People who were driven from riverside neighborhoods by deadly flooding returned to water-logged homes in this northern Mexican city to salvage their belongings yesterday.
City officials raised the death toll to 34. Many residents began burying the dead and large trucks started clearing the streets of debris.
At least a dozen people remained missing in Piedras Negras, a town of 200,000 in Coahuila state, 150 miles southwest of San Antonio, Texas.
About 200 people were evacuated from homes early yesterday by flooding on the northern outskirts of Piedras Negras, following Sunday's devastating flash floods on the city's south side.
Catarino Martinez, 63, found a single wall where his house once stood. Martinez was not sure if his home would be rebuilt. The flood carried away the blacksmithing tools that were his livelihood.
It has left me in the street
said Martinez. I can't work. It took everything.
Soldiers, ordered in by President Vicente Fox, looked for survivors yesterday and began clearing away cars and toppled light poles.
On Monday, Fox visited a temporary shelter in Piedras Negras and declared a state of emergency. Many neighborhoods remained without electricity, gas service and potable water.
Ana Maria Rios, 42, a housewife and mother of three, said she preferred not to see her home in shambles but returned anyway yesterday after hearing rumors of looting.
Rios' husband and nephew carried a bed frame and living-room set into their front yard to dry, as her 7-year-old son searched for a missing pet dog, rabbit and cat. He found only the cat.
Across town, heavy downpours had caused the Soldado Creek to rise yesterday morning, flooding homes on the northern outskirts.
Coahuila Gov. Enrique Martinez called the flooding some of the worst in the history of the U.S.-Mexico border region, describing the extent of the destruction as enormous.
The skies opened Sunday night, unleashing heavy rains and swelling water levels by 25 feet in the Escondido River, which flows into the Rio Grande.
As the rain intensified, the Escondido River poured over its banks, unleashing a wall of water that engulfed dozens of houses. By midnight, the flooding had spread to several nearby enclaves, forcing dozens of residents to scramble on top of roofs or climb trees and light poles. There they waited for hours for emergency crews.
Although the sun emerged yesterday, forecasters still warned that more rain was possible. 17
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