The rains, which have intensified since Saturday, have affected more than 12,500 hectaresaccording to the authorities, who have not reported deaths or disappearances so far.
Such is the strength of the currents that herds of cows have been swept from their pens.
The rainy season started earlier this year, causing flooding in five western Venezuelan states, as well as Caracas. The government, which reported rainfall in 2021 above 65% of historical averages, attributes the phenomenon to change climate.
“We continue to cling to God because there is a lot of anguish, despair. This time it is worse, there is more water,” Yolnerru Páez, a resident of the town of La Fortuna, whose houses, crops and animals were once again submerged, told AFP by phone.
In La Fortuna, a settlement that bases its economic activity on the crop from bananas and the cattle raising220 families were left incommunicado by the flooding of the Chama River, some 200 km long, which rises in the neighboring state of Mérida.
“We pray for our town where we were born, where we have been happy, it makes us sad that it disappears,” says Yolnerru.
The floods recorded in September 2021 left Nírciso Sánchez, a 55-year-old farmer, on the verge of ruin. A good part of his 8 hectares of bananas were washed away and, when he was trying to get up, the floods returned with greater force this year.
“80% of those who have plantain crops are not getting anything. Many plantations have been lost,” says Nírciso. “This is worse than last year… The way we’re going, La Fortuna is going to disappear.”
President Nicholas Ripe decreed a state of emergency and ordered the activation of a care fund for those affected for 10 million bolivars (just over 2 million dollars), which will be “renewable.”
Source: Ambito
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