Heavy rains in Colombia’s most western Choco and Valle del Cauca departments have caused massive damage that affected some 4,500 inhabitants, authorities said Sunday.
The rains and subsequent floods forced the authorities of three remote municipalities in Choco to declare an emergency situation while assessing the situation that has left thousands homeless, the director of Colombia’s risk and disaster unit told local media.
The disaster unit is involved in providing immediate aid to the area and that the national government was preparing a meeting with regional and local authorities in department capital Quibdo.
According to newspaper El Espectador, the delivery of humanitarian aid is being complicated because of the area’s remoteness and the flooding over rivers that has flooded and washed away roads and bridges.
The emergency came at the beginning of the first rainy season of the year in Colombia. Usually the country has two rainy season and two dry seasons, all lasting for about three months.