This year’s rainy season killed at least 108 in Colombia and caused damages to the houses and lands of 1.1 million people, the Red Cross said Sunday. Authorities in several parts of the country declared a state of emergency to deal with looming floods.
According to Red Cross rescue director in Colombia, Carlos Ivan Marcos, 21 people are still missing following landslides and floods, 183 are injured, 1,538 houses have been destroyed and 174,000 houses have been damaged.
Marcos told press that emergency plans were activated in the the northern departments Bolivar, Magdalena, Cordoba, Cesar and Sucre, on the Pacific coast, in the north-western Antioquia department and in the central Tolima department.
Marcos warned that the high water levels of the country’s two largest rivers, the Magdalena and Cauca, are threatening to flood more areas.
The director of Colombia’s meteorological institute warned that the rainy season may not end in December as it normally would, but be extended to the second quarter of next year, because of meteorological phenomenon La Niña, which is blamed for the excessive rains.