A Flood In Columbia Kills More Than 200 People

Crisis

According to reports more than 254 dead leaving hundred missing and injured after river overflows in Southern Colombia. Heavy rain caused three rivers that surround Mocoa city near Southern Colombia to rise up and surge through the city.

Search and rescue teams combed through the debris and helped people who had been desperately clawing at huge mounds of mud by hand. Many had little left to search. President Juan Manuel Santos, who visited Mocoa for a second straight day last Sunday, declared the area a disaster zone and said the death toll stood at 210. But that was all but certain to rise because authorities said there were more than 200 injured, some in critical condition, and more than 200 others unaccounted for. The disaster seemed to hit young people particularly hard. Santos said more than 40 of the dead identified so far were under 18, perhaps because youngsters were already in bed when the floodwaters struck. Mocoa is vulnerable to flooding. It is surrounded by the three rivers in a natural basin created by the surrounding mountains. The danger has grown worse in recent years because of deforestation, which eliminates some protection from runoff, and because many people built their homes close to the water. But the triggering event was rainfall of more than 130 millimetres that began late Friday