The latest fatal calamity brought on by Venezuela’s severe rains has left at least 25 people dead and more than 50 missing when a river overflowed, according to authorities on Sunday.
The Saturday night downpour that left Las Tejerias buried in mud and debris, including fallen trees, household goods, and crumpled automobiles, devastated homes and businesses.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez addressed the local media at the site, “We are witnessing extremely substantial devastation here, human casualties.”
As he provided an updated death toll on official broadcaster VTV late Sunday, Interior Minister Remigio Ceballos said that at least 25 people had perished in the accident.
“Unfortunately, 25 individuals have been discovered dead so far,” he stated. He said that search operations were ongoing and stated, “We also have 52 missing.”
Due to unusually heavy rains, dozens of people have perished in the crisis-stricken South American country in recent months.
“The community is lost. Losing Las Tejerias, “Carmen Melendez, 55, a local who has spent her whole life in the community 30 miles outside of Caracas, said AFP.
As he worked on the scene, Interior and Justice Minister Remigio Ceballos told AFP that over a thousand individuals had joined the rescue attempts.
While rescue crews came with dogs in the hopes of locating survivors buried in the wreckage, residents sifted through the ruins of damaged houses seeking for departed loved ones.
A pandemic-related closure of a butcher shop that was scheduled to reopen on Monday was covered in murky muck that caked the freezers and everything else in the space.
Ramon Arvelo, one of the employees removing muck, said, “We were waiting for the meat to be sent in — to start after two years closed.”
Loryis Verenzuela, 50, cried as she gazed out at the destruction and said, “I never dreamed that anything of this size could happen; it’s a very significant matter.
Ceballos remarked, alluding to the impacts of Hurricane Julia, which had passed just north of Venezuela the previous night: “We had a massive landslide as a consequence of the shifting environment.”
As he looked over the catastrophe area, he said, “There was a record downpour — as much rain in one day as is often seen in a month.
He added, “These heavy rains soaked the earth.”
Drone footage from the rescue effort revealed that the locals had attempted to shovel away the mud that had seeped into their homes, but enormous volumes of dirt had built up in the streets.
Jose Santiago, a resident of Las Tejerias, spent 40 minutes hanging to an antenna while the massive flood pulled his home along in the muck.
The 65-year-old said, “The flood got me and I could find nothing to do except climb a roof and cling onto an antenna.” I was born again!
Three days of national mourning for the deceased were announced by President Nicolas Maduro, and Venezuelans used social media to provide support to the community when power and communications were cut off.
Los Leones, a baseball club from Caracas, said that they will set up a collection for the victims, requesting “non-perishable meals, water, and clothing.”
The landslide, which was brought on by the region’s worst river flood in 30 years, is Venezuela’s worst so far this year. The country has recently seen historically high rainfall levels.
At least 15 people perished in the Venezuelan Andes in August as a result of mud and rock falls brought on by severe rains.
And in September, a religious retreat in the west of the nation was flooded by heavy rains, resulting in at least eight fatalities.
Huge landslides in the state of Vargas, north of Caracas, claimed the lives of almost 10,000 people in 1999.