Mexico's floods fit the pattern of this year's hurricane season: preparedness has restricted loss of life but not economic damage Reuters Things get ugly in Villahermosa THE scale of it all is difficult to imagine. At the flood's height, over four-fifths of the state of Tabasco, in Mexico's south-east, was under water, damaging the homes of nearly a million people. Villahermosa, the low-lying capital, was inundated after the Grijalva river burst its banks. Canoes hit the roofs of buildings as they evacuated residents; higher ground became disjointed islands in a lake studded with tree-tops. Hundreds of people remain huddled inside the majestic cathedral in the town's centre. Outside the state governor's residence, tens of thousands queued day and night for bags of powdered milk, cereal and drinking water. There are over a hundred shelters in Villahermosa alone, the largest of which houses 4,000 people. The governor, Andr