At least 36 dead and 56 missing left by a landslide in Las Tejeríasan industrial city in central Venezuela, the government reported Monday, increasing the death toll left by record rainfall in 2022.
13 other people They lost their lives in other regions of the country, also due to the rains that have fallen in recent weeks.
In Las Tejerías the tragedy came after three hours of intense rain which began on Saturday afternoon, which caused the overflow of several rivers and the entrainment of sedimentsrocks and trees from the top of the mountain.
“Unfortunately we have 36 people died at the moment and 56 missing in the municipality of Las Tejerías “, said the Minister of the Interior, Remigio Ceballos, through a video posted on his Twitter account.
He further specified that there is a “deployment of over 3,000 men at the moment” to help the victims of the disaster.
Disaster and three days of mourning
The scene is apocalyptic, he found the AFP in the area of the disaster. Houses destroyed e with several meters of mudpiles of trees dragged from the mountain to the completely devastated roads and businesses have left the country’s worst landslide this year with record rainfall spikes.
Giant trees were swept away by the worst flooding the area has experienced in 30 years, cutting off the main road into this mountain-bounded city.
President Nicolas Maduro decreed three days of national mourning for the victims.
About 1,000 officials are involved in the rescue, Remigio Ceballos, Minister of Interior and Justice, who went to the scene to check the damage, told AFP.
“We had a big landslide due to climate changelast night with the passage of hurricane Julia there was a vacuum that quickly generated a depression, “said the minister.
“The city was lost, Las Tejerías was lost”, complained Carmen Meléndez, who spent her 55 years in this city located about 52 km from Caracas. Teams of workers with machinery cleared the streets covered with debris and silt from the flood.
rainy record
Visiting the disaster area, Ceballos affirmed this “there was a record of rainfall” and the average volume of water falling in one month decreased in one day. “These heavy rains have saturated the earth, we have unfortunate losses,” the minister added.
Vice President Rodríguez explained that among the victims there are boys and girls and added that the bodies of the victims They were transferred to the village clinic.
“President Nicolás Maduro decreed this zone of tragedy and also decreed three days of mourning for the loss of Venezuelans we have had in this area,” he said.
In the footage of the drone used by the rescue teams, a large amount of mud and debris can be seen covering several streets in Las Tejerías where neighbors tried to shovel the meters of mud left inside their homes.
Venezuela experiences atypical rains that have caused damage in several states, this being the biggest disaster this year. About 10,000 people died in 1999 due to a large landslide in the state of Vargas in the north of the country.
Source: AFP and ANSA
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Source: Clarin
