Flooding Hits Venezuela; at Least 50 Dead

The streets of Caracas became raging rivers Thursday after torrential rains paralyzed much of Venezuela, triggering floods and landslides that killed at least 50 people and forced 120,000 to flee their homes.

“The river came like waves,” said Marina de la Malave, 55, whose house, perched on a mountainside, was swept away.

Officials said the bodies of 50 victims had been recovered, and at least 100 people were missing. Caracas fire Capt. Jorge Molina said he believed that about 100 people were killed in Malave’s neighborhood alone, a Caracas slum.

At least 15,000 people throughout northern Venezuela lost their homes, many of which were crushed by avalanches of mud.

Authorities declared nine northern states and Caracas disaster areas. Schools, banks and government offices were closed, and officials urged residents to stay home.

In a hillside slum area, people who were left homeless wandered aimlessly in the rain, which fell steadily much of Thursday. Forecasters didn’t expect it to let up.

“Most of my neighbors are dead,” a weeping Marisabel Rodriguez, 42, said as she stared at the narrow, muddy valley where shacks of clay block and tin were engulfed by a mudslide.

Rains that had been falling for several days intensified Wednesday night, a few hours after the closing of polls in a national referendum on a new constitution.

President Hugo Chavez, touring disaster areas by helicopter, had been expected to give a speech celebrating the charter’s passage. Instead, he said, “Brothers, today there is no reason to celebrate.”

Caracas, a valley capital at an elevation of 3,000 feet, was a surreal scene with streets covered with mud and uprooted trees dragged downhill from the mountain that separates the city from the Caribbean. Residents used shovels to dig cars from under piles of mud and debris, and in the upscale Los Chorros neighborhood, people were trapped inside their homes by water that roared down the streets.

Caracas’ subway system, which normally carries about 1 million passengers a day, was flooded.