200 dead in Colombia after rivers overflow

By Richard McColl

BOGOTA, Colombia

At least 200 people lost their lives after three rivers in southern Colombia burst their banks early Saturday, creating an avalanche of mud and rocks that has devastated the city of Mocoa.

The Colombian Red Cross said in a statement that more than 200 people were missing and hundreds more injured in the landslides after the overflowing of Mocoa, Mulato and Sancoyaco rivers amid heavy downpour.

Aid workers from the organization and various government entities, including the Colombian Army, have been scrambled to the disaster site. Seventeen districts of the departmental capital of Mocoa in the southern department of Putumayo have been washed away.

“All of the riverside districts, practically all of them have disappeared,” Jose Antonio Castro, Mayor of Mocoa, told Blu Radio.

“There is an unknown number of disappeared people, in particular children and others who were not able to escape their homes, who have yet to be reported to authorities,” he added.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has cancelled his schedule and flown to the disaster area bordering Ecuador to oversee rescue efforts. Media reports have quoted him as saying the death toll is expected to rise.

The government has sent military aircraft full of drinking water and medicine, and 150 disaster experts, to Mocoa.

There is no water or electricity in the city of 45,000 people and further rain is forecast, complicating search efforts.