Ciudad del Carmen family loses everything in a matter of hours

“We lived hours of fear, uncertainty, and sadness, seeing how everything we achieved with years of sacrifices and effort, was lost underwater in just a few hours,” laments Lucía Pacheco Llanos, who lived with her husband and four children in a room they rented in Calle 72, of the Primero de Mayo neighborhood, in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche.

Given the heavy and constant rains caused by tropical storms Amanda and Cristóbal, Lucía and her family’s belongings were lost underwater. To protect her children and prevent them from getting sick or drowning, Lucia placed them in hammocks, four feet above the ground.

“The water rose very fast, it didn’t give us any time,” says the woman. “At around 10 o’clock, the level started to rise and in less than 30 minutes, it was up to our knees.”

Born in Veracruz, Lucía arrived in Ciudad del Carmen five years ago with her husband, who used to work for a company in the oil industry, however, he lost his job due to the crisis in the sector, so they could not return to their place of origin, and they looked for a place to rent on the island.

“The beds and mattresses, a stove, our wardrobe, a dining set, among other things, all ended up underwater,” says the woman.

Accompanied by her two children, Lucía remains in the shelter that the Municipal Directorate of Civil Protection installed on the premises of Section 47 social center. She is thankful for the support they received from the Carmen City Council and the DIF, which have provided them with a dry and safe place where they can wait for “Cristobal” to go away.

“We know that it will not be easy to start again because now my husband does not earn as much as before, and it is a difficult time to find a job, but we hope to get over this situation, as we did when we got here in the first place,” Lucía said.