Heavy Rains Trigger State of Emergency in Colombia
Homes almost completely covered by flooding in Colombia, Nov. 11, 2024. X/ @LaNacionPy
November 11, 2024 Hour: 7:28 am
Floods have caused widespread damage in various regions, affecting 27 of 32 Colombian departments.
On Sunday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro declared a “disaster situation” across the entire country due to the heavy rains of recent days, which have caused flooding, overflowed rivers, and landslides affecting 27 out of 32 departments and nearly 46,000 families.
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“Due to what has been happening in recent days, a disaster situation is being declared across the country as a result of climate variability, which has led to unpredictable and unusual impacts, increasing the vulnerability of affected areas,” said the president after a meeting with the Unified Command Post (PMU) emergency committee.
This declaration will apply nationwide, but efforts will focus on three regions on a much larger scale, according to Petro, who specified these areas as the northern part of La Guajira department, the entire Chocó department, and Bogotá. All of them are going through a shortage of drinking water.
“A declaration like this allows us, by decree, to transfer budgetary resources from the national level currently allocated to entities unrelated to this type of emergency, to the regions that are climate victims of the current situation,” he explained, adding that the rainy season will extend through the entire month of December.
Climate vulnerability in Colombia “has been worsening due to impacts related to deforestation, illegal economies, and, in Bogotá’s case due to uncontrolled urbanization of the Bogotá Savannah,” Petro said.
The heavy rains of recent days in Colombia have caused widespread damage in various regions of the country, affecting a total of 27 of its 32 departments with floods, overflowing rivers and streams, and landslides affecting 46,000 families.
“In the consolidated report, we are talking about 186 municipalities in 27 departments, with 467 recorded events, and close to 46,000 families could be affected,” explained Carlos Carrillo, director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD).
Chocó department is currently the hardest hit, with 22 affected municipalities and more than 30,000 families impacted, according to preliminary figures provided by Carrillo, who noted that there are no casualties or missing persons. The departmental risk management committee in Chocó has declared a state of public calamity due to the severe impacts in the region.
Meanwhile, in the department of Santander, the flooding of the Las Cruces stream affected the municipality of San Vicente de Chucurí, leaving one person dead and two missing. Bogotá also experienced issues in recent days, with flooding on the highway entering the capital due to heavy rainfall, as well as in La Guajira department, where more than 10,000 families have been affected by flooding.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
