"The water was already up to our waists inside the house; we could no longer bear to live there," says evacuee Esmeralda Rodriguez at a shelter arranged for residents in a central Mexican town hit by heavy flooding. After more than three weeks of living in a flood caused by heavy rains and deficiencies in the drainage system, the residents of Chalco are struggling to adapt to a new and dangerous reality surrounded by sewage. More than 1,100 people were evacuated from the area and more than 2,000 houses were damaged as the water level reached a height of 1.5 meters, according to local authorities. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES