TEZIUTLAN, Mexico -- At least 300 people were confirmed dead Saturday from flooding in Mexico, which President Ernesto Zedillo called his country's worst disaster of the decade.

Zedillo said the number of dead is rising by the hour. At least 200,000 people lost their homes in the flooding, which affected nine of Mexico's 31 states.

Those hit hardest were Veracruz, Tabasco and Puebla, where 223 people were killed, state spokesman Jaime Maverick said.

In the central Mexican state, 88 bodies had been pulled from the mounds of mud and crushed homes in Teziutlan, 110 miles (177 kilometers) east of Mexico City, by Saturday morning, the Associated Press reported.