Colombia experiences worst weekend in 2012 rainy season

Colombia experienced its worst weekend for emergencies of this year’s rainy season, with ten deaths and four injuries reported.

A further 2,619 were left homeless or in some way affected by the heavy weather, according to media reports.

“This was the weekend of this year’s rainy season in which most emergencies have occurred,” said National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) Director Carlos Ivan Marquez.

An UNGRD report said there were 48 crises caused by the rain including landslides, floods, and water source overflows.

Heavy rainfall reportedly caused a landslide in northern Colombia which cut off Norte de Santander departmental capital Cucuta from the country’s interior for 48 hours.

UNGRD said the number of deaths related to the rainy season rose to 30 after the weekend, while five remain missing, 28 have been wounded and 63,742 affected in total.

Marquez called on people to “continue preventing [emergencies] and to not drop their guard,” adding that local communities should continue putting emergency relief plans in place.

A landslide Monday in a heavily populated area of Caqueta’s departmental capital Florencia left four people dead, two of which were children.

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