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Posted: 6:17 PM- A Utah animal rescue is looking for ways to aid hundreds of thousands of livestock and pets stranded in widespread floods in southern Mexico.

Kanab-based Best Friends Animal Society has sent a team to the state of Tabasco to assess the effect of recent floods that have left many of the region's 1.8 million cattle unable to find food in water that has risen up to their bellies, according to a report the society received from the Mexican agriculture ministry.

Torrential rains began battering Tabasco last week, swelling the rivers that crisscross Mexico's most soggy state.

The homes of as many as 1 million people have been destroyed or heavily damaged in the days since by floodwaters that rose as high as 19 feet. Officials on Tuesday estimated that the flooding has caused $4.7 billion in damage to homes, as well as banana fields and cattle ranches, according to media reports.

Three people have been killed, and 14 to 16 more are missing and feared dead in a mudslide in the village of Juan de Grijalva, in the state of Chiapas, south of Villahermosa.

A Best Friends representative arrived Tuesday and was surveying the destruction from a helicopter Wednesday, said society spokeswoman Barbara Williamson .

"We'll do a thorough assessment and publish our findings ASAP, so other international organizations can determine how best they can help," Paul Berry, chief executive officer of Best Friends, said in a news release.

There presently are no plans to bring affected animals to the United States, Williamson said.