Using ingenuity and a couple of boats lashed together, men in the flooded municipality of Tenosique, Tabasco, created a large makeshift raft to help people move their cars to escape rising floodwaters.
Tenosique and much of the area southeast of the state capital of Villahermosa has been experiencing crippling floodwaters for weeks now thanks to the effects of Hurricane Eta and two cold fronts.
The weather events brought heavy rains, affecting 300,000 people in the state, leaving many homeless or trapped in homes in waist-deep water.
In many flooded towns, transit is only possible by boat. Tenosique is one of seven Tabasco municipalities for which the Ministry of the Interior issued emergency declarations on Monday, making them eligible for federal aid.
The good samaritans with the raft were not identified but were captured in action on video by observers who recorded the transport of one family, with their car, across the rising Usumacinta River in the town of El Faisán.
▶ Lancheros usaron su creatividad para rescatar un auto que quedó atrapado en el río Usumacinta, en #Tabasco
📺 La historia con @azucenau #AzucenaxMILENIO pic.twitter.com/QSZd2liGGa
— Milenio Televisión (@mileniotv) November 25, 2020
Authorities have declared four municipalities around the river to be on maximum flood alert and evacuated around 3,600 people.
The rescuers lashed planks on top of two rafted boats to provide a flat surface for the car, then transported the vehicles across the river, to the delight of onlookers.
Source: Milenio (sp), El Universal (sp)
