Nature Bowls with Five States and the Score is Desolate
It seems that Tropical Disturbance 90-E, such a technical and cold name for such a visceral phenomenon, decided that October 6-9 was the perfect time to unleash its wrath on eastern Mexico. The result, as if it were a macabre game, is a toll of 47 people dead. Because nothing unites a country more than a natural tragedy that shows, with cruel irony, how unprepared we are always for the predictably unpredictable.
And on this gloomy podium of misfortune, the prizes are distributed with a logic that only chaos understands: Veracruz takes the gold medal with 18 deaths, Hidalgo the silver medal with 16, and Puebla completes the trio with 12. Querétaro and San Luis Potosí, for their part, contribute their own doses of pain to round this figure that will surely remain a “preliminary number” until it stops being news. Does anyone bet on when it will stop being so?
The Great Theater of Aid: Statistics to the Rescue
Faced with this bleak panorama, the Federal Government has come to the fore with the speed of a bureaucrat in a marathon. They inform us, with the solemnity of a war report, that at the instruction of President Claudia Sheinbaum, an operation has been deployed that looks like the cast of an action blockbuster, but instead of explosions, there is mud. A lot of mud.
In Veracruz, the hardest hit state where there are not only deaths but also six people who, with a euphemism worthy of a thriller, are called “not located”, the spectacle of aid unfolds. The National Defense and the National Guard add up to an impressive battalion of 1,810 uniformed personnel. Their mission: clean homes, remove debris and, supposedly, provide security. One wonders if such force would not be more useful *before* the catastrophe, but that is perhaps too cynical a reflection even for this narrator.
Meanwhile, Semar is not far behind in this military popularity contest. It deploys 1,686 elements in Poza Rica and Álamo, boasts of having helped 3,405 people, and has distributed water and food supplies as if they were candy in a parade. They have freed roads, collected garbage and have even removed billboards that, apparently, had a strange attraction for obstructing roads. All this seasoned with the surreal detail of having “mobile kitchenettes” – because nothing says “we are in an emergency” like a government food truck – and a motorized bilge pump whose name suggests that they faced a particularly stubborn puddle.
The Map of Pain Spreads: Everyone Plays, Everyone Loses
The function does not end in Veracruz. In Puebla, with its 12 deceased and 15 people in the disturbing category of “not located”, they have joined the choreography of the troops. The Defense and the National Guard present a combo of 2,140 souls dedicated to cleaning, removing debris and moving people. It’s comforting to know that, in the midst of the chaos, someone is counting the numbers so accurately.
Hidalgo, with 16 dead, receives the promise of 200 Semar elements “on arrival.” A phrase that evokes the image of a ship sailing calmly towards disaster, slowly but surely. Meanwhile, San Luis Potosí boasts its “white balance“, a term that sounds like a pyrrhic victory when talking about natural disasters, as if nature had done them the favor of being less lethal there. For its part, Querétaro reports one death and some 150 homes affected, reminding us that in the lottery of tragedy, there is no completely white ticket.
And so that no one is left with any doubt about the state’s logistical power, the arsenal deployed is detailed: seven aircraft, 31 heavy machinery, 21 dump trucks, 6 tractor-trailers and 11 boats. It sounds like the fleet with which you could invade a small island, but in this case, its heroic mission is cleaning, clearing and sanitizing. Because if a family that has lost everything needs something, it is to have a damp cloth wiped over what was their house.
This Sunday, they tell us, these tasks were “intensified.” What a relief, we thought they were going to wait for it to magically dry. The final objective, they say, is to “channel support in a timely manner.” A phrase as full of good intentions as it is administrative vagueness, leaving us all hoping that “timely” means something more than a well-written press release.
The federal, state and municipal forces continue to be deployed, they assure us. News that, without a doubt, is a balm for those affected, who surely appreciate the company of so many troops while they contemplate what the water took away. In this great theater of absurdity that is sometimes confronting a natural force with pure bureaucracy and numerical reports, the only thing left to do is hope that the help is as efficient as the accounting of the victims is.
Are you moved by this example of how institutional brute force confronts the brute force of nature? Don’t stay with the drama. Share this chronicle of the surreal on your social networks and help us get more eyes to see the sometimes hilarious and sad spectacle of disaster management. And of course, explore more related content to continue fueling your informed skepticism.
