Tonala’s municipal government sought to delare a state of emergency after the torrential downpour caused damage to 164 homes, 46 stores, 27 vehicles and 18 streets in seven neighborhoods. Soldiers and Civil Protection Unit workers took more than 60 people from their homes to a shelter run by the Family Development Agency (DIF), while Mayor Jorge Araña Araña estimated that at least 20 million pesos of damage had been done.
There were no fatalities but video footage posted on Youtube shows local resident Francisco Centeno, 58, being swept along Calle Emiliano Zapata, the worst hit street in Tonala. Centeno can be seen clinging onto his car as neighbors try in vain to reach him, before being swept away – along with his vehicle – by the strong currents.
Centeno was later rescued and admitted to a public health clinic where doctors operated on an exposed knee fracture, but he remains at risk of losing his leg, his wife told Spanish-language daily Mural.
Residents of Emiliano Zapato, where 10 vehicles were damaged beyond repair, were furious with local and state authorities, who never responded to their complaints that the capacity of the street’s already-inadequate drain was reduced several years ago.
Visting the street on Tuesday, Mayor Araña of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) described the work to reduce the size of the drain as “stupid” but stressed that it was carried out from 2007 to 2008 under the administration of Jorge Vizcarra of the National Action Party (PAN). Vizcarra responded that the plan was to install three drains on the street, but blamed his successor Antonio Mateos and the current mayor for never completing the project.
Governor Aristoteles Sandoval also visited the area on Tuesday, but he sought to downplay the severity of the damage done. Sandoval said there was no need to declare a state of emergency and he questioned Araña’s assessment of 20 million pesos of damage, maintaining that a team of experts were required to provide an accurate estimation.
The neighboring municipality of Tlaquepaque was also hit hard by Monday’s storms, with 27 residents evacuated to DIF shelters as 174 homes suffered damage in nine neighborhoods – some reporting floodwater over a meter high.