Flooding and overflow of tributaries in the state of Oaxaca. The case of the Papaloapan Basin in 1888

Abstract

This article analyzes flooding events in the state of Oaxaca from the perspective of disaster history and historical climatology. It also emphasizes that these events are linked to the last pulses of the Little Ice Age. I consulted all the reports from the 1880s, paying particular attention to documentation of 1888, as it was in this year that a significant number of floods occurred in the Mexican Republic and in the state of Oaxaca. The work is divided into two parts: the first one addresses floods in a general manner, and the second focuses on the events that took place in the Papaloapan Basin. The examples studied in this work show how the abrupt changes in climate in the specified year influenced on the one hand the health, economy, and organization of the affected population, and, on the other, the organization of authorities and civil society to support the affected communities in the Papaloapan Basin. I additionally addressed how these events occurred while a strategy was devised in order to prevent them in the future.