ABCNEWS
WIRE:Sept. 16, 4:39 p.m. ET Officials struggle to bring aid to flood victims
AP News Service - Associated Press Writer

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) _ More rain delayed aid flights Wednesday to villages isolated by a week of flooding in Mexico, while the death toll rose to 119 and hunger grew among those cut off by the downpours.

Helicopters resumed shuttling food, water and medicine to the 400,000 people in southern Chiapas state isolated by mudslides, swollen rivers and downed bridges when the rain let up in the late morning.

Forecasters predicted more heavy rain in the next 24 hours.

The floods last week tore through an area the size of Massachusetts, leaving residents without food, water or power. By Wednesday, 119 bodies had been recovered, according to Health Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente, although officials expect the number to rise.

Local newspapers said more than 200 had died, and the Roman Catholic bishop of Tapachula, Monsignor Felipe Arizmendi, said the church expected the death toll to reach 500 or even 1,000 when officials are able to count all the missing from tiny villages in the mountains.

Many bodies are believed to have washed into the Pacific or disappeared beneath the mud.

Hunger was increasing among flood victims, and in one village people attacked a military helicopter dropping off aid, according to the Mexico City newspaper Reforma.

Dozens of villagers in Soconusco, 40 miles northwest of Tapachula, swarmed onto a helicopter dropping off rations Tuesday, grabbing everything inside the chopper. Soldiers were unable to stop them, Reforma said.

``People are starving to death here,'' a local leader, Leobardo Broca, was quoted as telling the soldiers. ``See for yourselves. I want all of you to understand that I'm not guilty of anything, because you've left us alone.''

The fight for the aid was intense, the newspaper said. Two women fought over the same sack of flour, splitting it in half and sending a cloud of flour over the area, churned up by the helicopter's rotors.

Weather officials said 3.2 inches of rain had fallen in Pijijiapan, one of the hardest-hit communities, and half an inch in Tapachula. They forecast another 2-2{ inches in the state over the next 24 hours.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department advised Americans to exercise caution when traveling in Mexico because the floods have washed out roads and bridges, blocking passage on some, including sections of the Pan American Highway.

State government officials said helicopters had been grounded Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning because of rain, but the rain turned into a drizzle and the aid teams resumed their work.

Mexico's Red Cross continued to call for donations of food and medicine. Among those responding was Pope John Paul II, who donated $50,000 through Catholic charities for Mexico.