A MEXICAN RESIDENT MAKES HIS WAY HOME THROUGH FLOOD WATERS, 1999-10-24 (photo)

A Mexican resident makes his way home carrying his bicycle through flood waters at Jose Maria Pino Suarez neighborhood, in the southern city of Villahermosa October 24. Flood waters were slowly rising in the Mexican state of Tabasco Sunday after weeks of torrential rain forced officials to open the gates of a dam that was filled to capacity. The Gulf of Mexico state, streaked with some of the country's most important rivers, has been hard hit by flooding from heavy rains earlier this month that killed some 400 people and drove some 300,000 others from their homes across central and southern Mexico. HR