In Villahermosa, Tabasco ‘it never rains but it pours’

“Intense rains took the inhabitants of the city of Villahermosa, Tabasco by surprise, causing puddles and floods of between 10 and 40 centimeters in neighborhoods, streets and avenues”, reported Jorge Mier y Terán, general coordinator of the Institute of Civil Protection of the State of Tabasco .  

Villahermosa residents barely recovered from the floods at the beginning of October and are back again with semi-submerged cars, streets and houses flooded in at least 15 points in the city.

Despite the precautionary notices launched 24 hours ago by state authorities of heavy rainfall, from 50 to 70 millimeters, as of Thursday night, the Cold Front 9 went through, and even the offices of Civil Protection coordination are flooded right now.

Unlike the beginning of October where atypical rains collapsed the city due to failures in gullies that could not be supplied, this time, the wet soils of the state are still saturated.

“The soil no longer has absorption capacity, it is already saturated with water, and then the water that falls remains on the surface. That is the main problem we might have at this time , ” the official Jorge Mier y Teran, general coordinator of the Institute of Civil Protection of the State of Tabasco, said in an interview.

Mier y Terán estimated that the incoming cold fronts will continue to affect the region, and stated that the entry of cold front number 11, brought more rains to the Sierra and the Chontalpa areas.

According to a report from Conagua, the accumulated rainfall record in Villahermosa was 125.2 millimeters

Three weeks have passed and Villahermosa still has not recovered from the flooding caused by rains on cold fronts 4 and 5, as well as the venting of the Peñitas dam, which left more than half a million victims in 14 municipalities with 24 percent of the territory underwater and now again repeating flash floods by soils saturated with moisture.