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‘Get me out’: Search for Venezuela landslide survivors continues | Climate Crisis News


Rescue workers continue to try to locate missing people in a central Venezuelan town, clearing rocks and mud from the streets of Las Tejerias three days after it. affected by a large landslide killing dozens of people.

Neighbors and rescuers – some 3,000 policemen, soldiers and other professionals – joined Tuesday in an ever more desperate search for possible survivors, but Hope was quickly extinguished.

Officials said landslides killed at least 36 peoplebut warned the death toll could rise as bodies are found further downstream from the worst-affected parts of town, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the capital Caracas. . At least 60 people are believed to be missing.

Magaly Colmenares said she joined a team of firefighters to retrieve the body of her grandson Monday from a muddy home. The body was taken to a medical center to serve as a morgue.

“He was buried with a man who tried to help him and his three-month-old sister,” Colmenares said. “I’ve found my angel, and we have to look for his sister, too.”

Woman leaning on mattress with newborn baby on her lap, surrounded by debris and collapsed houses
A woman holds her child in front of her flood-damaged house in Las Tejerias, Venezuela [Matias Delacroix/AP Photo]

Unusually heavy rain in Venezuela caused a major river and several streams to overflow on Saturday, causing a torrent of mud that washed away cars, parts of homes, businesses and telephone wires, and cut down big trees.

Experts say the storm was aggravated by the seasonal La Nina weather system that covers the area, as well as Julia’s influencea hurricane that has killed at least 26 people in Central America and caused widespread damage.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said a month’s worth of rain fell to the region in just eight hours. According to Rodriguez, 317 homes were “completely destroyed” and 757 homes damaged by landslides in Las Tejerias, which is located along Venezuela’s main industrial corridor.

Rescuers said it would be “difficult” to find any survivors in the town.

Nathalie Matos, 34, said in frustration as she waited for news of the fate of her 65-year-old mother, aunt. was on the phone when the flood hit.

“She said to me: ‘Daughter, you are drowning, the water is coming in, get me out, get me out… save me!” Matos recounted. “I tried calling her back, Ms. He picked up, but there was only noise,” she said.

Aerial view shows mud covering everything, with a damaged house on one side.
Deadly landslide prompted by days of torrential rain and floods swept through this town in central Venezuela [Matias Delacroix/AP]

In a rare public appearance on Monday, President Nicolas Maduro visited the city and toured affected neighborhoods. He said everyone affected by the disaster would be given new homes, adding that the town of 50,000 people would “sprout like a phoenix”.

“No one will be left out,” Maduro said.

Maduro told journalists he would welcome international support without giving further details. His administration has so far been reluctant to accept humanitarian aid from Western nations, even though it has accepted food and medical supplies from Russia and China.

Authorities built refugee centers in Maracay, the capital of the affected Aragua province, and announced the distribution of 300 tons of food.

The government has also declared three days of mourning for the victims.

Crisis-affected Venezuela is no stranger to seasonal storms, but it is the worst so far this year after historic rains that have killed dozens in recent months.

In 1999, about 10,000 people died in a massive landslide in the northern state of Vargas.

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