Days after disastrous landslide, Venezuelan officials fear death toll will soar
Officials fear the death toll will approach 100 as hopes of finding survivors diminish in the wake of what experts are calling Venezuela’s worst natural disaster in decades.
Residents and emergency crews dig through the debris left by flooding and landslides in Las Tejerías, Venezuela, on Oct. 10.
A landslide in Las Tejerias, a city in Venezuela, has destroyed hundreds of homes and left a death toll of at least 43 with around 56 still missing as of Tuesday afternoon. Officials fear the death toll will approach 100 as hopes of finding survivors diminish in the wake of what experts are calling Venezuela’s worst natural disaster in decades.
“We have not experienced a landslide of such magnitude in Venezuela in many years," President Nicolas Maduro told Venezolana de Televisión 360 on Monday when he visited the area.
According to AFP, this landslide occurred on Saturday and has already become the worst natural disaster of the century in Venezuela. Maduro said authorities counted almost 400 houses that had been completely destroyed and 400 more with some damage.
Las Tejerias is nestled in the mountains about 30 miles (48 km) from the country’s capital, Caracas, and home to about 54,000 people. AFP reported more than 3,000 rescuers had been deployed to the town to help those affected.
Local residents rest while neighbors clear mud and recover belongings at a flooded street as the sun sets in Las Tejerias, Venezuela, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said intense rain caused the flash flooding and a ravine's overflow. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Isaac Castillo, a resident of Las Tejerias, said one of his main concerns was the people who are still missing.
“We don't know if there are still people under this rubble," Castillo told AFP, pointing to the ground next to him.
The community, along with the authorities, have come together to clean up the debris from the streets and the homes. But some homes have been deemed uninhabitable, adding to the residents’ frustration.
"Civil Defense says the house is uninhabitable,” Miguel Segovia, a resident of Las Tejerias, told AFP. “They won't give me a house, and if they ever do, it will take years."
The United Nations System in Venezuela, with a mission to respond to the population's needs in the most vulnerable situations, acknowledged the devastating events in a tweet on Sunday evening. Gianluca Rampolla, a resident coordinator of the system, tweeted the organization was “mobilizing support in close coordination with the authorities.”
Excessive rainfall fueled at least in part by former Hurricane Julia and La Niña, a climate pattern marked by cooler-than-normal water across part of the Pacific near the equator, played a role in the disaster, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
Local residents recover belongings from a house damaged by flooding in Las Tejerias, Venezuela, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said intense rain caused the flash flooding and a ravine's overflow. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
"As much rain fell in eight hours as normally falls in a month," Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said, as she blamed the "climate crisis,” according to AFP.
Julia went on to claim at least 26 lives in Central America as the storm unleashed flooding rainfall across the region and resulted in widespread damage from Panama to Guatemala.
Castillo said regardless of the recovery and aid efforts, not all residents were eager to start cleaning up. Some had expressed their concerns about the area’s ability to recover properly.
"We have not yet begun to clean up the little that can be cleaned, if it can be cleaned up, because here the majority of the neighbors agree to abandon this area,” Castillo told AFP. “Tejerias will never be the same again, it will take a thousand generations to recover these towns, this was totally devastated."
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