March 27th will be remembered as the date the city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, collapsed as a result of the rains that completely flooded it, but also as the day its inhabitants became earthly angels, superheroes, and brothers.
What seemed like a simple rain shower turned into a tsunami that slowly devoured the city until it was flooded.
This Tamaulipas border has been hit by hurricanes like Beulah in 1967, which, with winds of up to 218 kilometers per hour, left extensive property damage in various Reynosa neighborhoods.
Or Alex in 2010, which even flooded the Reynosa Customs warehouses and caused the Rio Grande to overflow its banks.
However, what seemed like a simple rain shower paralyzed the city in a matter of minutes, generating chaos and panic among its citizens.
Cars stranded on streets that had become rivers, people trying to save their lives as the currents in some streets threatened to engulf them, canals and drains overflowed.
Homes where the water wiped out family assets, damage to businesses, maquiladoras, companies, and shops that had to close their doors when the flooding began.
People searching for relatives who left their homes or jobs just as the storm hit, and couldn’t locate them until late into the night.
It was incredible, unprecedented, something a hurricane had never caused: the entire city flooded.
And it was precisely this that moved hearts, that prompted those who could, wanted, and had the means to take to the streets to save those most in need.
In trucks, boats, heavy machinery, with ropes, life preservers, Jeeps, and trailers, the residents of Reynosa rescued families who managed to take shelter on the roofs of their homes, those in their cars about to be swept away by the current, students unable to leave school, and maquiladora workers.
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The desperation was so great that some people, sensing the danger, knelt in the street to offer a prayer.
Traffic officers rescued people caught in the currents; the Mexican Army implemented Plan DNIII; social activists managed units, hospitals, boats, and volunteer brigades transported families in their trucks to available shelters.
On March 27, the city came to a standstill; but not the empathy of its inhabitants.
Source: eluniversal
