Tropical Storm Bret Lashes Venezuela; 99 Dead, 500 Hurt

Tropical Storm Bret on Sunday killed at least 99 people, injured 500 more and left as many as 5,000 homeless when mudslides toppled rickety slum dwellings in and around Caracas, civil defense officials said.

The storm, with gusts of 60 m.p.h., claimed 77 lives in Caracas and another 22 in neighboring Miranda and Aragua states, Caracas civil defense official Carlos Martinez said.

In Colombia, a 22-year-old woman was electrocuted when winds hurled an electrical wire and pole into a house in Maicao, near the Venezuelan border.

Morgue director Enrique Aponte said most of the dead were children who suffocated when their homes collapsed.

“We never expected a tragedy of this magnitude,” said Caracas Mayor Aristobulo Isturiz. “A lot of people still are buried.”

Bret had been expected to pass relatively harmlessly along Venezuela’s northern coast. It caused relatively small problems when it passed over Trinidad and Tobago.

Heavy rains driven by strong wind fell for five hours in Caracas. Homes built of cinder blocks, plywood and galvanized sheet metal simply fell apart.

Roads were blocked, and electricity and phone services were knocked out.

Some poor neighborhoods were evacuated for fear of mudslides, and schools were turned into makeshift shelters.

By Sunday afternoon, the rains stopped and winds tapered off as the storm moved west.