Oaxaca community remains cut off 10 days after hurricane struck With the road washed out, the nearest city is a 15-hour hike away Published on Friday, June 10, 2022

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/oaxaca-community-no-aid-hurricane-agatha/?utm_source=TWE&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tpcc%20%3D%20dailynewsletter&pnespid=quN8CStXaK1Gi_jRuTq1Asuevw2rXcNzIOXkkfFuthNmOIKJlDfWeo5rC.8XM.XOpM7TI1GXwQ

 A view San Mateo Piñas after Hurricane Agatha. TWITTER / @OAXACAPOLITICO

Oaxaca community remains cut off 10 days after hurricane struck

With the road washed out, the nearest city is a 15-hour hike away

Published on Friday, June 10, 2022

Residents of a small municipality in the mountains of Oaxaca are still without power and haven’t received any disaster assistance since they were pummeled by Hurricane Agatha on May 30, according to the newspaper Milenio. To make matters worse, residents say their mayor has abandoned them and has taken up residence in Oaxaca city.

The citizens of San Mateo Piñas, a town of about 2,000 people, say that because authorities and various government agencies have not done anything to help, they are now asking the federal government to take action, as they are still without sufficient food, drinking water or housing. They demanded that the army and President López Obrador address their situation and deliver humanitarian aid through the airlift installed at the Huatulco airport, Milenio reported.

San Mateo Piñas is located in the Sierra Sur, about 37 kilometers from the town of Santa María Huatulco via a small mountain road. But residents say landslides on the highway have made it impassable and have left them isolated and “incommunicado.” Instead of being able to drive to Huatulco in less than two hours, villagers and others now have to walk on mountain paths for up to 15 hours to get there, one person said.

At a press conference in the city of Oaxaca, relatives of those affected by the hurricane said they had set up three collection centers for food and other useful items, and that in a week, they collected six or seven tonnes of support. But, they added, they do not have the means to transfer any of it to the devastated community.

Here is some of the damage left behind by Hurricane Agatha in Mexico—this road reaches San Mateo Piñas, a community of about 1,500 that has been cut off following the storm. Their water system also collapsed, so we’re bringing drinking water in addition to food. #ChefsForOaxaca pic.twitter.com/qtUemGCVjs

Mayor Tomás Victorio García also was criticized for not having assumed his responsibility so far. “He responds from his cell phone, from his home in the city of Oaxaca, he is never in the town,” one person said.

They also denied the mayor’s statements that he came to Piñas on a motorcycle to check out the damage, and then returned to the city of Oaxaca to file a report. “That is impossible,” said one person, “because the community is not reachable.”

However, residents of the affected area have sent photographs to relatives and friends, and some of those have been published on social media. People are able to charge their cellphones, one person said, only because some have solar panels.

Ana Elisa Garcia Galán, originally from San Mateo Piñas, told reporters in Oaxaca city on Thursday that the help being asked for is a “matter of humanity.” She said people are fed up with politicians “because they don’t attend to the demands of the people.”

Family members of San Mateo Piñas residents held a press conference in Oaxaca city to tell journalists about the conditions in the community and ask for government support. 

Family members of San Mateo Piñas residents held a press conference in Oaxaca city to tell journalists about the conditions in the community and ask for government support. FACEBOOK / LENTE INFORMATIVO OAXACA

Garcia added that people are eating soup and running out of food. “Two days ago, I posted on my Facebook that we’ve had 30 minutes of rain [in the city of Oaxaca] and everyone is freaking out because of floods. Now imagine six hours of heavy rain, plus the wind, and your house is falling down. Everything that you have worked to have has fallen down.” That, she added, is a whole different kind of reality. 

According to news sources, Hurricane Agatha, with winds of 165 kph, was the strongest hurricane to make landfall along the Pacific coast of Mexico in the month of May since records began in 1949. It hit land as a Category 2 hurricane, bringing heavy rains that triggered landslides and flash flooding. 

Media reports have put the death toll at 11 people, with several dozen others missing. However, Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said nine people had died with five missing. He said the hurricane damaged 31 municipalities, where there were 25,134 affected families for a total of 100,544 people.

He added that 28,021 homes were damaged, the water system collapsed in eight municipalities, 70,082 users were left without electricity in 21 municipalities, 560 kilometers of highways and roads were damaged, 16 bridges collapsed and there was damage to coffee, papaya and sesame crops. Germán Martínez Santoyo, the head of the National Water Commission, reported that 90% of the drinking water systems in the region were affected, and 20% of the drainage systems suffered damage.

In nearby Puerto Escondido, where the hurricane did comparatively little damage, many residents have stepped in to provide emergency aid to hurricane victims in the region, particularly those living in remote mountain communities.

Sembrando Buenas Semillas and Helping Hands Puerto Escondido are among groups providing household supplies and lonas, or tarps, to replace roofs that were damaged by high winds. Some eyewitnesses have told Mexico News Daily that residents of numerous small communities have been left with nothing.

The organizations are collecting funds to purchase supplies with a campaign on FundRazr.

With reports from Mileno, El Universal and El Economista

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POLITICS U.S. to drop COVID testing requirement for international travelers flying to the U.S.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-test-requirement-dropped-air-travel-international-flights-to-us/

POLITICS 

U.S. to drop COVID testing requirement for international travelers flying to the U.S.

BY STEVEN PORTNOY

JUNE 10, 2022 / 10:11 AM / CBS NEWS

The Biden administration will soon eliminate the requirement that U.S.-bound air travelers present a negative COVID-19 test before departure, according to a senior administration official. 

The elimination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's requirement will go into effect Sunday, June 12, at 12:01 a.m. The official stressed that the requirement could be reinstated if necessary. CNN first reported the policy change. 

The senior administration official said the CDC made the determination based on science and data that this requirement is no longer necessary at this time. The CDC will do a reassessment of the decision in 90 days. The official pointed out this move is possible because of advancements in treatments and vaccines. 

Playa Zipolite . This afternoon

Zipolite

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Playa Zipolite . This afternoon

We ❤️ Zipolite! We 💙 Bob Hannaford !!! REDANA rules!!! #fuerzazipolite 👊⭐️🍀

Publi Hands Playas Oaxaca is with Bob Hannaford and Adriana Aramar.

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We Zipolite! We Bob Hannaford !!!

REDANA rules!!! #fuerzazipolite

After Agatha, Piña Palmera needs us all to rebuild itself... After Agatha, Piña Palmera needs us all to rebuild itself...

The conquest has never been interrupted: Rita Segato - Let's be uninformed Let's be uninformed After Agatha, Piña Palmera needs us all to rebuild itself... After Agatha, Piña Palmera needs us all to rebuild itself...

After Agatha, Piña Palmera needs us all to rebuild

Diana Manzo

June 8, 2022 0

5

Photos: Courtesy of Piña Palmera

Oaxaca, Oaxaca. “He hit hard and with all his might,” says Verónica Méndez, one of the victims of Hurricane Agatha, who lost everything. For a week, the affected families and towns of the coast and southern highlands of Oaxaca add up to 17,000 victims, according to official figures. But the figures do not count or speak of the human need of those who were left with nothing.

Piña Palmera is a Children's Care and Rehabilitation Center that was devastated and requires solidarity from everyone to rebuild and function again as it has done for 30 years, when it opened its doors in Zipolite, Oaxaca.

More than 100 minors and adults are cared for in this place, mostly indigenous people from the coast and southern highlands of Oaxaca, who receive free treatment for any disability, reported Nayeli Souza, a Piña Palmera volunteer.

"With the rains that Agatha left behind, the rivers filled and overflowed, the water and mud reached almost a meter and a half in height and entered the rehabilitation center to take everything away," he stressed in a telephone interview with Disinformémonos .

Nothing was left of the furniture, equipment and rehabilitation devices, says the young volunteer, so "we have to start over, requesting solidarity from the entire community."

Piña Palmera survives receiving donations. It has been like this for three decades, and with this flood 80 percent of its facilities were affected, emphasized Nayeli Souza, who stressed that the sole purpose of this center is to continue helping the indigenous families of Oaxaca.

“80 percent of our facilities were damaged by the rains. They were sites dedicated to the care and attention of people with severe disabilities. The workshops, houses and rooms of the staff and volunteers were totally destroyed, as well as the hydraulic and electrical installations, and all telephone and internet communication services,” he said.

In addition, it reported that the absolute loss of equipment and furniture of all kinds was recorded, including those necessary to carry out therapies, mobilize people with severe disabilities and care for them in critical situations.

“Today, Piña Palmera needs all of us for its reconstruction,” says Nayeli, and although she makes an urgent call to the three levels of government, her trust is in civil society, which, she assures, has always supported them.

“We want to build a world where it is less difficult to love”

“We want to build a world where it is less difficult to love” is Piña Palmera's dream and she emphasizes it on her website, citing the critical thought of the Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire.

In Piña Palmera all its members are equal. There are founders and volunteers like Nayeli Souza, who emphasizes that she urgently needs to rebuild this space that helps hundreds of families from two regions of Oaxaca.

Since its foundation, more than 5,000 minors and adults with different disabilities have participated in its programs. Now 635 people participate in their centers, where the population they serve is divided into 20 percent infants, 35 percent young people, 35 percent adults and 10 percent elderly.

People with different ages and disabilities (physical, intellectual, auditory, visual and psychosocial) participate in the actions that Piña Palmera carries out, as well as difficulties in the area of ​​language, learning and behavior together with their families, without taking into account the type of disability.

The central axis of the work that this organization does is based on respect for differences and the formation of an inclusive society.

Those who make up Piña Palmera pointed out that "despite the flooding and the overflow of the rivers, the tidal waves and the wind, there are no human losses to mourn, however help is needed such as electric generators, solar cell lamps, water pumps, flashlights, shovels, ropes, construction materials, cleaning supplies, shoes and clothing”.

The aid, reported Piña Palmera, is received through donations to the bank account 09400502588 (Scotiabank Inverlat, with password 044630094005025888) and supplemented with data to obtain information about it: telephone 958 58431 47 or email caipinapalmera@gmail. com.

While the help in kind is received in Nahuatlacas mz. 81, lot 17, col. Ajusco, Cafetlaes esq. Canaverales, cabbage. Farms Coapan and Marsella 60, cabbage. Juarez, in the capital of the country. In the city of Oaxaca, it is Sikanda-Puente a la Salud Comunitaria/Privada de Magnolias 109, col. Reform.

Zipolite is one of the tourist sites on the Oaxacan coast that Agatha devastated and where government aid is provided by the people, because government institutions have been only dribs and drabs.