On July 25, a rainfall of between 60 and 69 millimeters in less than 50 minutes caused saturation and overflow of the rivers in the city of Leon. One of these, the Gomez’s river (Río Los Gómez) caused the state’s worst flooding in more than 90 years.
Several avenues and main boulevards in the city were completely flooded, while citizens shared videos and photographs of the most affected sites on social networks.
Several cars could be seen almost completely submerged in various parts of the city. And at one point, the strength of the Gomez River current dragged six vehicles with a woman trapped inside one of them, at the intersection of Mariano Escobedo boulevard and Malecón Avenue.
photo: excelsior.com.mx
After 8:00 p.m, 58-year-old Margarita Alonso Hernandez, was driving her car when the current got stronger, dragging everything including her vehicle. Minutes later, two local police officers attended to rescue her, and they had to break the windshield and remove it, in order to get Margarita out.
Strong current dragged cars in León’ s Malecón Saturday July 23 (Photo: sinembargo.mx)
While rescuing the woman, agent Jose Eduardo Plancarte Virrueta got stuck, therefore his fellow officer Juan Pablo Villanueva Hernandez had to return to get him out of the car, that was drifiting away fast. Both officers were now inside the floating car.
Cars dragged by current in León’s Malecon (Photo: periodicocorreo.com.mx)
Agents of Civil Protection and civilians threw them a rope from a bridge, and finally, the agents made it to higher ground with only small injuries
According to writer and historian Javier Padilla, León has been flooded three times in the last two centuries: in 1888, 1926 and this year.
During the flood of June 18, 1888, at least 242 people died and 1,400 were reported missing.(Photo: Google)
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