AMERICA/MEXICO - Emergency continues due to heavy rains, the Bishops call for solidarity with flood victims

Tuesday, 25 September 2018 natural catastrophe   local churches  

Michoacán (Agencia Fides) - At least seven people have lost their lives - four children and three adults - and eight others have disappeared after the heavy rains hit a town in the Mexican state of Michoacán (in the west of the country) causing the flooding of a river and a reservoir. On Sunday, September 23, the Cutio River that flows through Peribán, a municipality of Michoacán in the western part of the Mexican state, with about 28,000 inhabitants and the Parástico reservoir overflowed. According to the latest information sent to Fides, the rains have affected about 1,000 people and damaged more than 100 homes.
This tragedy is added to that which occurred last week, on September 19 and 20, when heavy rains hit the state of Sinaloa (north-west of the country) causing at least three deaths and three missing, and the state of emergency in eleven municipalities. Given this situation, the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM) published a statement, on September 21, calling for solidarity with "the thousands of people affected by heavy rains and floods", which also caused "damage to houses, cars and fields, in addition to the evacuation of about 16,000 people and the suspension of lessons in schools".
In their statement sent to Fides the Bishops ask all the faithful to "unite, with a merciful gesture, generous spirit and fraternal charity, to the special collection for our brothers to help and accompany them now and in the subsequent stages of rehabilitation and reconstruction".
The statement, signed by Cardinal Robles Ortega, Archbishop of Guadalajara and President of CEM, and by Mgr. Alfonso G. Miranda Guardiola, Auxiliary Bishop of Monterrey and Secretary General of CEM, concludes by entrusting "Mexican Caritas the mission to receive and transfer funds in order to respond to this emergency", in addition to putting "under the protection of Saint Maria di Guadalupe" all those affected by this catastrophe. (LG) (Agenzia Fides, 25/09/2018)


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