At least 22 dead and 52 missing left a landslide in Las Tejerías , an industrial town in central Venezuela, adding to the toll of heavy rains, which hit records this year.
Another 13 people died in different regions of the country, also as a result of the rains that have fallen in recent weeks, after the events , President Nicolás Maduro decreed three days of national mourning for the victims .
In Las Tejerías, the tragedy came after three hours of heavy rains that began on Saturday afternoon, which caused several rivers to overflow and drag sediment, rocks and trees from the top of the mountain.
“We have already found 22 dead people, there are more than 52 missing people. Right now we are fundamentally serving a search front for these people,” said Vice President Delcy Rodríguez from the scene of the disaster.
The scene is apocalyptic, found the AFP in the disaster area. Destroyed houses with several meters of mud, lots of trees dragged from the mountains to the streets and completely devastated businesses left the worst landslide recorded this year in the country that has experienced record rainfall peaks.
Gigantic trees were swept away by the worst flood that the area has experienced in 30 years , cutting across the main road of this town bordered by mountains.
Also cars and fragments of houses were dragged by the current that rose up to six meters in the structures closest to the riverbed, many of which lost walls.
Local effects
A butcher shop that closed due to the pandemic and was scheduled to reopen on Monday was covered by sediment that damaged refrigeration equipment and everything inside.
“We were waiting for the meat to be shipped to start after two years closed,” said Ramón Arvelo, one of the workers who helped remove mud.
“I never thought that something of this magnitude could happen, it’s something strong,” said Loryis Verenzuela, 50, as she contemplated the devastation through tears and approached to offer assistance.
Some 1,000 officials are involved in the rescue efforts , Remigio Ceballos, Minister of the Interior and Justice, who went to the site to verify the damage, told AFP .
“We had a large landslide as a result of climate change, last night with the passage of Hurricane Julia there was a vacuum that quickly generated a trough,” said the minister.
“The town was lost, Las Tejerías was lost,” lamented Carmen Meléndez, who has lived her 55 years in this town located about 52 kilometers from Caracas.
Meléndez, one of the neighbors, was waiting for news from Margot Silva, a relative who was reported missing. He lives in a neighboring town and had gone to Las Tejerías to buy groceries. “The first time we see something similar, we know we are going to overcome it, but we regret the human losses,” he said.
Crews of workers with machinery cleared roads covered with debris and silt from the flood.
Touring the disaster area, Ceballos stated that “there was a record rainfall” and the average volume of water that falls in a month fell in one day.
“These heavy rains saturated the land, we have unfortunate losses,” added the minister.
In the shots of the drone used by the rescue teams, a large amount of mud and debris can be seen covering several streets of Las Tejerías where the neighbors tried to shovel out the meters of mud that remained inside their houses.
