TIJUANA – By land and by air yesterday, supplies of fresh food and water reached the Gulf of California coastal community of Mulege, which was left isolated and devastated by Tropical Storm John.
Residents reported that electricity and running water have been restored to many central areas of the town of some 2,500 people, but hundreds of others in the outlying regions remained without services, local residents said. As parts of the Transpeninsular Highway became passable, heavy trucks were reportedly able to reach the town for the first time since the storm.
Much of Mulege, which is about 400 miles south of San Diego, has been affected by flash floods that swept through early Sunday with a force that longtime residents said they hadn't seen in nearly five decades. The damage is by all accounts widespread, and Baja California Sur Gov. Narciso Agundez yesterday made his second visit to the town in two days to survey rescue efforts.
“You could say that the entire town is damaged,” said Juan Carlos Aguilar, an official with the municipality of Mulege, who was reached at government offices in Santa Rosalia. “People are getting desperate; they've lost everything.”
Luis Miguel Castro, a spokesman for the government of Baja California Sur, said yesterday from the state capital, La Paz, that 500 families in the town had registered losses; of those, 200 reported their homes had been destroyed.
One U.S. citizen lost his life Sunday morning during a flash flood, the only confirmed death in Mulege. Staff from the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana who visited the town report that as many as 250 homes owned by U.S. citizens in the area of the Mulege River were damaged or destroyed.
Jorge's Trailer Park, by the river, “looks like a bomb hit it,” Mulege resident Patti Higginbotham wrote in an e-mail sent early yesterday from Mulege via satellite connection. “Gasoline is sporadic and necessary to run generators. The drinking water is gone, we have no water for washing, the dirt airstrip is covered in mud,” Higginbotham wrote.
Later in the day, the situation appeared to be improving. Saul Davis, reached by telephone at his grocery store, Abarrotes Davis, said trucks carrying food were able to reach the town from the north.
Residents left homeless were staying with friends or in government-run shelters, Davis said. Many were leaving their soaked mattresses and clothes out to dry.
“The presence of the governor was very significant,” Davis said. “When he saw it with his own eyes, he could see for himself that the damage was widespread.”
Mulege has long been popular with U.S. tourists. Groups from north of the border have been mobilizing to bring aid to the town. Jack McCormick, owner of Baja Bush Pilots, was preparing to fly down from Phoenix yesterday with 100 gallons of water in his Aero Commander. He expected an additional 20 members of the group would be making similar flights this week.
The San Diego-based International Community Foundation is raising money to help victims of Tropical Storm John in Mulege and other communities in Baja California Sur. For information, check the Web site at www.icfdn.org.
Sandra Dibble: (619) 293-1716; sandra.dibble@uniontrib.com
