Gonzalez, 44, lives in San Bartolo Tutotepec, a municipality in Hidalgo, one of three states in central and eastern Mexico worst-hit by several days of rains that turned streets into rivers and swept away roads and bridges.
She spoke to AFP in front of her wooden, tin-roofed house, nestled in mountains. It took an AFP team five hours to reach the area after traveling 19 kilometers (12 miles) on foot.
"We felt like the ground was already sinking," said Gonzalez, recounting when the landslide stuck and she fled outside in the darkness with her 14-year-old daughter.
"You could hear the stones falling down there, the houses shaking."
After four days of isolation, Gonzalez said she was surviving on tortillas. She is unable to withdraw cash as ATMs have been damaged.
"As long as there is corn... we'll manage," she said, but she worried that the rain would return and destroy her house, now riddled with cracks.
Across the impacted regions in Mexico, authorities have reported 64 deaths and 65 missing. Among the missing is the doctor of San Bartolo Tutotepec, its mayor Ubaldo Gonzalez told AFP. The impoverished town lies in the Otomi indigenous region.
- 'Total devastation' -
President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday around 10,000 troops have been deployed with boats, planes and helicopters as part of rescue efforts and to deliver critical food and water for those trapped by the rains that also badly hit the neighboring states of Puebla and Veracruz.
Dozens of small communities remained inaccessible by road on Monday.
The path to San Bartolo Tutotepec is treacherous. With the roads closed, the only access is along a muddy path over hills.
Women and men hike it, carrying backpacks, bags and boxes of food to take to their cut-off villages.
About 50 soldiers marched with shovels along the highway that connects San Bartolo Tutotepec with the town of Tenango de Doria, which lies to the south. Thick fog made it difficult to see.
An officer said that after an entire night removing mud and rocks, the troops had barely cleared 100 meters (yards) of the road. Army bulldozers began arriving on Sunday, but their weight has created cracks in the winding road, impeding progress.
Military personnel have only managed to reach the worst-hit communities by helicopter.
The mayor, Gonzalez, said the landslides had caused "total devastation" in the municipality's communities. He said residents are desperate for food but are doing their best to support their neighbors.
On the road to San Bartolo, residents are also busy clearing the road of debris and mud in areas unreached by the military. They leave rocks to indicate where the road is blocked.
Lucio Islas, a 73-year-old retired mechanic, was using his truck to provide free transport for residents exhausted after hours of walking.
He said he does it out of "humanity." In the Otomi mountains, "we help each other," he said.
At least 14 miners killed in Venezuela floods
Caracas (AFP) Oct 14, 2025 -
At least 14 miners have died in floods caused by heavy rain in eastern Venezuela, rescue workers said Tuesday.
Disaster relief agencies and the military said in a joint statement that they were working to recover the bodies of the workers from a gold mine in the town of El Callao in Bolivar state.
The workers were underground when heavy rain fell on the region which borders both Guyana and Brazil, flooding several mine shafts.
"They were caught by surprise," Bolivar Governor Yulisbeth Garcia said in a statement, adding that the rescue effort was continuing.
Videos posted on social media showed workers bringing up several muddied bodies from the mine.
"What we're experiencing is horrific," Elizabeth Zerpa, who lost two relatives in the disaster -- brothers from the same family -- told AFP.
El Callao's mayor, Jesus Coromoto Lugo, sent his condolences to the victims' families in a social media post.
Gold mining is the economic mainstay of El Callao, a town around 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Caracas and home to around 60,000 miners, according to the mayor.
It was not clear whether the mine was operating legally or illegally.
Deadly accidents are common at illegal gold mines across South America.
Between 2023 and 2024, at least 30 miners died in the collapse of gold mines in Bolivar state.
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