Venezuela Landslides Kill 3, More Feared Dead

Wed June 4, 2003 10:36 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - At least three people were killed and around 40 were missing, feared dead, after landslides triggered by heavy rain buried homes in Venezuela's Andean region, officials said on Wednesday.

Survivors said entire families were missing after torrents of mud and boulders smashed into houses, overturned vehicles and blocked roads on Tuesday in the mountainous western Andean state of Merida.

The neighboring state of Barinas was also hit by flooding and landslides.

Civil defense officials said only three bodies had been recovered so far, including two children, but some 40 people were listed as missing. "Tragically, we must presume they are dead," Merida state governor Florencio Porras told Globovision television.

However, officials from Venezuela's Civil Protection Service said they would only list the missing as casualties if their bodies were found.

In the village of Pueblo Llano, several homes were destroyed and six people were missing. "A torrent of water swept away several houses. They haven't found the bodies. They were carried away by the water," Maria Yaura Santiago, a doctor at the local hospital, told Reuters by telephone.

Several houses in another hamlet, La Primavera, were also destroyed by the slides along the rain-swelled Santo Domingo river that broke its banks in several places. Rescue workers used bulldozers to try to move the rubble and recover bodies.

Porras declared a state of emergency in the area and appealed for drinking water, food and mattresses to help several hundred people evacuated or made homeless. Troops were also brought in to help with the rescue operations.

The landslides destroyed a bridge, brought down power and telephone lines and cut several roads, including the main trans-Andean highway between Merida and Barinas.

In December 1999 at least 10,000 people were killed in massive mudslides triggered by torrential rain that swept through coastal towns and villages in the central Venezuelan states of Vargas and Miranda.