Death Toll in Flooding Tops 400

The death toll from a week of massive floods in southern Mexico has risen to 409, and 849 people are still missing, possibly buried under tons of mud, the government said. A government document said that 106,774 people in the storm-battered state of Chiapas are homeless and that 353 communities remain cut off after the worst floods in four decades. President Ernesto Zedillo said the flooding, which began Sept. 4 when a series of storms swept up the Pacific coast, was the worst natural disaster to hit Mexico since an earthquake killed up to 10,000 people in 1985.