69 homes on hillsides in Tijuana evacuated
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050121-9...
By Sandra Dibble
January 21, 2005
TIJUANA ? The patio in front of Marta Vel?zquez's house began giving way Monday. Then the stairway fell off. Yesterday, civil protection officials
ordered the 28-year-old homemaker to leave the small concrete-block residence.
Hers was one of 69 homes on a crumbling hillside in southeastern Tijuana evacuated by the city yesterday, forcing more than 300 people to seek shelter
with relatives or in city-operated centers.
With cracks expanding by the hour, the steep slopes of Colonia Division del Norte are no longer safe. The dozens of small houses of this poor colonia
with commanding views are no match for the moving earth loosened by rainfall this month.
Tijuana, a city of more than 1.5 million residents, has more than 70,000 people living in high-risk zones, said Dr. Humberto Garc?a G?mez, Tijuana's
civil protection chief. The city has ordered the evacuation of 4,500 people from the most dangerous areas in recent weeks.
But many times, they are reluctant to leave.
Three years ago, a landslide prompted civil protection officials to declare this densely settled hillside a high-risk zone, but residents were loath
to leave, civil protection officials said.
After a rainfall last year, more houses began falling apart. Yesterday, as fissures grew deeper and embankments gave way, officials moved in with
renewed vigor.
"That house with the blue tarp, it could be instant death," said Garc?a G?mez, pointing downhill to a wood shack sitting on a plot carved into the
soft earth.
Landslides are a threat in many parts of the city, where land-hungry residents built on steep hillsides prone to erosion.
Recent state and city administrations have attempted to curb such illegal settlements, relocating residents to safer parcels. But many resist leaving
houses they have built with great effort.
If the danger is not detected in time ? or if residents refuse to leave ? the results can be tragic. Three children died this month in the southern
area of San Antonio de los Buenos, crushed when the walls of their homes gave way to mudslides.
The neighborhood in Colonia Division del Norte was settled by squatters about 15 years ago, but several residents said they have since obtained title
to their land from a state office.
"I have them right here," said Vel?zquez, a mother of three, holding a plastic shopping bag. "I knew there would be someone saying that we don't have
title."
The city's Civil Protection Office reports more than 150 homes in the city have been destroyed by landslides this season.
Yesterday, Civil Protection officials evacuated five families in the Camino Verde neighborhood after cracks in the ground threatened their houses.
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