MEXICAN RESIDENTS LOOK AT THE FLOOD DESTROYING THE BRIDGE IN TONALA CHIAPAS, 1998-09-09 (photo)

Residents of Tonala look at the Zanatenco river after the bridge connecting Tonala to the town of Pijijiapan in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas was destroyed by floods September 9. Torrential rains continued their assault after mudslides and swollen rivers killed at least 28 people in the past six days. Officials in Mexico City set up help lines and called for aid donations for an estimated 18,000 people, many of them impoverished Indians, who have been affected by the floods unleashed by a pair of storms that began their deadly course up Chiapas' Pacific coast last Friday. HR/CM/AA