Key Takeaways
- In December 2025, the city of Poza Rica in eastern Mexico is still recovering from a major flood earlier in the year, with broken streets, fine dust in the air and long days without safe water.
- Across Latin America, unemployment is about six percent, but many people still work in informal or low-paid jobs, which makes recovery after disasters slow and difficult.
- Health agencies and researchers warn that natural disasters can trigger strong emotional reactions and long-term mental health problems if support is weak.
- Simple digital tools like WhatsApp voice messages, and short, clear phrases such as “You matter” and “This is what happened”, can bring comfort and calm even when they do not rebuild homes or create jobs.
- A Red Cross video and other public information show how organised help works, but everyday recovery in Poza Rica still depends on patient cleaning, fragile work and gentle, honest communication.
Story & Details
A city looking back from December
In December 2025, Poza Rica is no longer under water. Cars move along the main roads again. Markets are open. Children walk to school. From a distance, the city looks almost normal.
Up close, the marks of a major flood earlier in the year are still easy to see.
Heavy rain and overflowing rivers turned streets into brown channels. According to the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service, the overflowing Cazones River caused severe flooding in Poza Rica and thousands of people had to leave their homes for shelters.[1] Houses were damaged. Shops lost stock. Roads and bridges broke in many places.
Not every home filled with water. Some were just high enough to stay dry inside. The floor never turned to mud. The fridge never floated. But even these homes could not escape the disaster. Tap water stopped being safe to drink. Power cuts came and went. Moving around the city became hard and slow.
For around ten days, there was no reliable drinking water from the tap. People waited in line for water trucks, stood in crowded streets with buckets and bottles and carried heavy containers up stairs. Each day brought the same questions: use the last clean water to cook, to wash, or to drink. Ten days without safe water is short on a calendar, but long in real life.
The dust that never seems to end
When safe water finally returned, it felt like a big step forward. But another problem appeared and stayed: dust.
As the floodwater went down, it left a thick layer of mud on streets, patios and steps. Weeks of sun and wind dried that mud into a thin crust. At the same time, damaged roads began to crumble. Every car, motorbike and truck drove over broken surfaces and lifted fine dust into the air.
This dust settled on everything. It covered tables and chairs, toys, windowsills and dishes that had just been washed with precious clean water. People swept floors in the morning and saw a new film of dust by the afternoon. Some kept their windows closed, even when it was hot, because fresh air also meant more dust.
In December, many homes in Poza Rica still repeat the same routine: sweep, wipe, dust, repeat. The water is gone, but the city still breathes the flood through this dry, grey layer.
Work on shaky ground
Large numbers help explain why this recovery feels so fragile. The International Labour Organization reports that unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean slipped to about 6.1 percent in 2024, down from 6.5 percent the year before.[2][3] On paper, that sounds like progress.
The details tell a harder story. Almost half of the region’s workers are in informal jobs with no stable contracts and few protections.[2][3] Many are paid by the day or without social security. Women face lower employment rates than men and earn less on average.[2][3] For millions of people, the real question is not only “Is there a job?” but “Is this job safe and stable enough to survive a shock?”
In Poza Rica, this matters a lot. Imagine a person with a formal job, a contract and some savings. When a flood closes the workplace for a week, it hurts, but there may still be money to pay rent. Now imagine a street vendor who sells food at a market, or a cleaner who is paid in cash at the end of each day. If roads are blocked, or customers stay away, there is no income at all.
A disaster does not create this insecurity, but it makes it sharper. A home that just covers its bills in a good month can fall into debt when a flood stops work for ten days. For many families, rebuilding after a disaster means not only repairing walls but also trying to rebuild small, fragile sources of income.
The hidden weight on minds
Alongside the broken streets and lost jobs, there is another part of this story that is less visible: mental health.
The World Health Organization explains that in emergencies such as floods, conflicts or epidemics, almost everyone feels strong stress, fear or sadness, and about one in five people is likely to live with a mental health condition.[4][5] These conditions can include depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The problems often last far beyond the end of the physical danger.
UNICEF warns that children in emergencies face special risks.[6] They may be forced from their homes, lose access to school, be separated from friends or family members and go without safe spaces to play. All this can harm their emotional development. Without support, children can carry the effects of a disaster into teenage years and adult life.
Research collected in journals such as Frontiers in Public Health and related series shows that people affected by natural disasters often face long-term psychological effects, especially when they are already living in poverty or in unstable housing.[7][8] Survivors may have trouble sleeping, feel constantly on edge, or re-live the moment of the flood whenever it rains.
The Canadian Mental Health Association also underlines that climate-related catastrophes bring a kind of “second wave” of problems.[9] After the shock of the event, people have to deal with damaged homes, new debts, changes in family life and the long process of rebuilding. This extra pressure can lead to burnout, deep sadness and a sense of being stuck.
For many people in Poza Rica, December 2025 feels like this second wave. The streets are no longer full of water. But the fear of another storm, the stress of unpaid bills and the sight of unfinished repairs keep the disaster alive in their thoughts.
A tiny Dutch lesson in a voice note
Support does not always come in large plans or long meetings. Sometimes it comes as a small message on a phone.
Imagine someone in Poza Rica receiving a WhatsApp voice note from a friend living in a northern European country. The friend wants to send something light and kind, not just bad news. In the short recording, there is a tiny language lesson in Dutch.
The friend says one word: “goedemorgen”. It is a simple, friendly way to say “good morning”. Then another: “dank je wel”, which means “thank you very much”. The words are short and easy to repeat. The message may last only a few seconds, but it carries care across an ocean.
According to WhatsApp’s own help pages, sending a voice message is simple: open a chat, hold down the microphone icon, speak, and then release to send.[10] For people who feel tired or emotional, speaking can be easier than typing a long message. The sound of a familiar voice can also bring comfort when text on a screen feels cold.
WhatsApp has added a feature that turns these voice messages into written text. The company’s blog explains that users can go to Settings, then Chats, then Voice message transcripts, and choose to turn the function on and select a language.[11] After that, they can long press a voice message and tap “transcribe” to read the words on the screen. This helps when someone is in a noisy place, when they need to read faster than they can listen, or when they simply prefer text at that moment.
In Poza Rica, a short voice note with two Dutch phrases, and maybe a few words of encouragement, cannot fix a broken house or replace lost income. But it can remind someone that they are not alone, that life has more than one language and more than one place, and that their day still deserves a warm “good morning” and a sincere “thank you”.
Organised help and the value of clear words
Large organisations also play an important part in disaster response. The Red Cross, for example, supports people in many countries after floods, fires and storms. In one public video, the American Red Cross shows how its teams respond to disasters: they move quickly into affected areas, open shelters, provide food and basic supplies and offer emotional support to survivors.[12] The video explains that Red Cross workers help families affected by disasters many times each day.
In Mexico, national agencies, local authorities and volunteers have also been active. Reports from Copernicus and Mexican government sources describe how rescue teams, soldiers and emergency staff went into flooded areas, set up shelters, delivered food and clean water and tried to restore power and transport links as fast as possible.[1] This kind of organised work is vital. It keeps people alive and meets basic needs while bigger repairs are planned.
Yet everyday recovery in Poza Rica also depends on something that seems smaller: communication.
When leaders or employers stay silent after a disaster, people easily feel forgotten. Long gaps with no news about repairs, jobs, school reopening or financial support can make fear and anger grow. In communities where trust in institutions is already low, silence can feel like another kind of damage.
Short, clear sentences can help. Phrases like “You matter” or “This is what happened” do not rebuild roads, but they give people solid ground under their feet. The first phrase tells someone that their pain and effort are seen. The second gives a simple, honest account of events. Together, they can reduce rumours, answer basic questions and show respect.
In December 2025, Poza Rica sits at this point between shock and long recovery. The flood is in the past, but its effects are still present in dust on furniture, in missing jobs and in racing hearts when the sky turns dark. Clean water, safer work, strong mental health support and gentle, honest words are all part of the same work: helping a city stand up again.
Conclusions
A quiet look at what remains
The story of Poza Rica in December 2025 is not only about a flood. It is about how a city lives with what the water left behind.
There are the visible marks: damaged roads, walls that still smell of damp and a thin layer of dust that never seems to settle for long. There are the economic strains: informal jobs that vanish when markets close, small savings eaten up by repairs and families unsure how to pay next month’s bills. And there are the hidden wounds in minds and hearts: restless nights, sudden fear when it starts to rain and tiredness that lingers long after the last sandbag is removed.
Across Latin America, official labour numbers show slow improvement, but they also hide deep gaps. Many workers in the region still walk on a tightrope of low pay and weak protection, so a disaster can easily push them into crisis.
Health agencies and researchers are clear that mental health must be part of any response to such events, not an afterthought. Support for emotional recovery needs to sit beside support for housing, jobs and infrastructure.
At the same time, daily life is stitched together with very simple things. A swept floor. A calm explanation from a local official. A short Dutch greeting in a voice note. A kind “You matter” said without big promises. These gestures do not change the weather or the shape of a river, but they help people feel less alone as they rebuild.
Poza Rica’s story shows how, after the cameras leave, recovery is a mix of public policy, community effort and quiet acts of care. It is slow. It is often uneven. But it moves forward one clear message, one shared meal and one cleaned room at a time.
Selected References
[1] Copernicus Emergency Management Service. “Flooding in Central and Eastern Mexico, October 2025.”
https://global-flood.emergency.copernicus.eu/news/225-flooding-in-central-and-eastern-mexico-october-2025/
[2] Reuters. “Unemployment dips in Latin America in 2024, but inequality gap grows, ILO says.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/unemployment-dips-latin-america-2024-inequality-gap-grows-ilo-says-2025-02-12/
[3] International Labour Organization. “Progress in the labour market in Latin America and the Caribbean is insufficient, ILO says.”
https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/avances-en-el-empleo-en-am%C3%A9rica-latina-y-el-caribe-son-insuficientes-seg%C3%BAn
[4] World Health Organization. “Mental health in emergencies.”
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-in-emergencies
[5] World Health Organization. “Mental health in emergencies: a lifeline, not a luxury.”
https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/mental-health-in-emergencies–a-lifeline–not-a-luxury
[6] UNICEF. “Mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies.”
https://www.unicef.org/protection/mental-health-psychosocial-support-in-emergencies
[7] Frontiers in Public Health. “Natural Disasters and Mental Health Consequences.”
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/14604/natural-disasters-and-mental-health-consequences/magazine
[8] Frontiers in Psychology. M. Z. Karim et al. “Understanding mental health challenges and associated risk factors following natural disasters.”
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1466722/full
[9] Canadian Mental Health Association. “Community is essential to supporting mental health after catastrophes and emergencies.”
https://cmha.ca/news/mental-health-after-catastrophes-and-emergencies/
[10] WhatsApp Help Center. “How to send voice messages.”
https://faq.whatsapp.com/657157755756612
[11] WhatsApp Blog. “Introducing Voice Message Transcripts.”
https://blog.whatsapp.com/introducing-voice-message-transcripts
[12] American Red Cross. “How The Red Cross Responds To Disasters” (video).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAugbZEew2s
Appendix
After-flood dust
Fine dust that appears after floodwater goes away and dried mud and broken road surfaces turn into tiny particles, which rise into the air and settle again and again on homes, furniture and belongings.
dank je wel
A short Dutch phrase used in daily life to say “thank you very much” in an informal and friendly way.
goedemorgen
A Dutch greeting used in the morning to wish someone a good day, similar to saying “good morning” in English.
Latin American labour market
The world of work in Latin American and Caribbean countries, where official unemployment is around six percent but many people still have informal or low-paid jobs without strong legal or social protection.
Mental health in emergencies
The state of thoughts, feelings and behaviour during and after crises such as floods, storms or conflicts, when many people feel strong stress and some develop longer-lasting conditions like depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Natural disaster
A sudden and damaging event caused by natural forces, such as a flood, storm, earthquake or wildfire, that can destroy homes and roads, interrupt work and services and affect both physical and mental health.
Poza Rica
A city in the Mexican state of Veracruz that suffered severe flooding earlier in 2025 and is still dealing, in December 2025, with damaged streets, lingering dust and the social and emotional effects of the disaster.
This is what happened
A simple English sentence that introduces a clear explanation of events, often used after a crisis to replace rumours and silence with direct, honest information.
WhatsApp voice message
An audio message that a person records and sends through the WhatsApp app by holding a microphone icon, which lets people share tone and emotion without writing text.
WhatsApp voice message transcripts
A WhatsApp feature that turns the spoken words of a voice message into written text on the screen so that users can read the content when listening is difficult or inconvenient.
You matter
A short English phrase used to tell someone that their life and feelings are important, which can bring comfort and support after a disaster or during any other difficult time.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 