Church worker says preparation helped Mexico escape hurricane deaths

Published: 2007-08-21

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- A church aid worker said that thorough preparation, along with Hurricane Dean's fortuitous landfall well to the south of Cancun, helped the region in Mexico escape injuries, deaths and greater damage. Eufemio Flores, emergency coordinator for Caritas Mexico, said the new concern was the western side of the Yucatan Peninsula, which the hurricane began to lash the morning of Aug. 21. Caritas Mexico is the local affiliate of Caritas Internationalis, the international network of Catholic aid and development agencies. Flores said Caritas representatives were working with local authorities in the Gulf states of Campeche and Tabasco to help prepare the population for the storm. In a telephone interview with Catholic News Service, Father Francisco Velazquez Trejo, director of Caritas in Campeche, said the wind had become fierce and residents there were bracing for Dean's arrival, which was expected in the afternoon hours. "We're going to be one of the hardest-hit states since (Dean) will pass right through the middle of the state and it will cut us in half," he said. Hurricane Dean hit the Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 5 storm, causing damage and flooding, but it weakened as it passed over land Aug. 21.

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