The Frio River flooded six barrios in the town of Chia, just north of Bogota in the Cundinamarca department, early Wednesday morning, causing the evacuation of three.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of the three most adversely affected barrios, where, according to Chia Government Secretary William Tamayo, the water has reached the windows of inhabitant’s homes, reported Radio Santa Fe.
“The river never overflowed like this. We have a critical situation,” said Tamayo.
Residences, parking lots, and a number of access roads were flooded when the river overflowed its banks, forcing inhabitants of the town to spend the night outside of their dwellings.
Police and firefighters have thus far been ineffective in quelling the effects of the flooding according to town inhabitants, who have asked authorities to produce a better plan of action for dealing with situations of this nature.
Serious flooding and landslides throughout Colombia, caused by the heavy rains of this winter season, have exceeded the state’s capacity to deal with this year’s exceptionally high number of natural disasters.
Several disasters have been recently reported near the capital. Tuesday morning, the overflowing of a river in Utica, another town just outside Bogota, caused a landslide that left one dead and another two people missing.