OSTUACAN, MEXICO — A massive wave of mud and water swept through a village Monday and at least 16 people were feared buried, officials said, as rescuers elsewhere worked furiously to deliver aid to victims of devastating flooding in southern Mexico.
A landslide blocked a rain- swollen river and pushed a wall of water and debris over the remote Chiapas state village of San Juan Grijalva, home to about 600 people, most of whom fled into the hills ahead of the advancing wave.
The community, 45 miles southwest of Villahermosa, is near the border of heavily flooded Tabasco state and linked to the same river systems. The landslide was the latest damage caused by a week of flooding and heavy rains that left 80 percent of Tabasco under water, destroying or damaging the homes of about half a million people.
Residents of San Juan Grijalva said they were awakened by a rumbling roar and the sound of rocks rolling down from surrounding mountaintops on Sunday night.
“We didn’t know what was happening, and then we went outside, and there were cracks opening the earth,” said Domingo Sanchez, 21. “We ran up the hill … but soil kept coming down on us.”
Chiapas state Gov. Juan Sabines described one of the waves as a “mini-tsunami” and noted that “this village practically disappeared.”
Meanwhile, at least 20,000 people in Tabasco remained trapped Monday on the rooftops of homes.
