One extreme example of such shortages was reported by local broadcaster Formato 21 on July 4, five days after the hurricane strike. Traders were selling a 19-liter water bottle at 150 pesos (11.7 U.S. dollars), around 3.5 times the normal price, after supermarkets and corner stores suffered a panic buying spree at the weekend that targeted drinking water.
The Mexican government had responded by sending President Calderon, Secretary of the Interior Fernando Gomez Mont and other senior officials to the region.
On July 6, Calderon flew over Anahuac, a town on Nuevo Leon's border with the United States that was under water at the time. Standing at the scene of the disaster, the president promised to speed the transfer of government funds from the Natural Disaster Fund (Fonden), triggering a debate in the nation's legislature that streamlined payouts.
Separately, Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero promised on Monday that Mexico would have enough in the Fonden to pay for repairs.
Once the money comes through, there may even be an economic boost for the area, said the economist Flores, adding that "there could even be an increase of local jobs, which will go some way to helping the recovery."
Risks remain high, however, not least from disease.
Last week, Miguel Angel Lezama Fernandez, who leads the nation's National Prevention Programs and Disease Control Center, told broadcasters that flooding that has ravaged much of Mexico makes a major dengue fever outbreak increasingly likely.
Dengue fever was carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that breeds in stagnant water, which is now everywhere in the most affected states. There is no known cure for dengue, which causes severe pain in bones, muscles and joints, as well as headaches, fever and rash.
