108 dead, 400,000 affected by Colombia’s rainy season

Two landslides kill four people in the northern departments of Santander and Antioquia, bringing the number of people who have died in Colombia’s rainy season to 108.

Another 420,000 thousand people have been affected since September 1, including 10 missing, 95 injured, and almost 67,000 homes destroyed in 27 out of 32 departments, according to Colombian authorities.

The director of the National Red Cross Relief, Cesar Ureña, told Spanish news agency EFE that there have been 181 landslides in Colombia this year. “It continues to rain, and the mountains are saturated,” he warned.

On Wednesday, more than 200 families were evacuated from the municipality of Los Cordobas in the northwest of the country due to flooding from two streams that surround the town.

At the same time, near the Venezuelan border in the northeast of the country, the road linking Rubio with Las Dantas was shut down following 48 hours of constant rainfall.

Government agencies and local municipalities have denied accusations of failing to take adequate measures to prevent weather-related disasters and have been battling to establish who was responsible for the emergencies.

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