Bello - Rescuers recovered more bodies on Tuesday from the site of a huge mudslide in north-western Colombia where more than 100 people were buried when their homes were swept away in a weekend disaster.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos visited the site in Bello, Antioquia province, where more than 30 bodies have been pulled out so far even as heavy rains have hindered recovery efforts because of the risk of further landslides.
The disaster on Sunday was the worst in Colombia's wet season as rains batter much of the country, causing floods that have killed almost 200 people, damaged crops and livestock and forced more than 1.5 million from their homes.
“Of the 30 bodies recovered, 11 are children,” Santos said as he toured the site, where rescue workers with picks and shovels have dug through tons of dislodged mud and the wreckage of 50 homes destroyed by the landslide.
Local authorities began to evacuate other areas that are in danger of mudslides while hundreds of local residents in Bello desperately sought to help in the search for lost loved ones.
“We're going to work 24 hours until we get out the last body; it is the least we can do,” Santos said.
He said his administration was discussing whether to declare a limited state of emergency over recent disasters to allow Congress and the government more flexibility in funding.
The Inter-American Development Bank has offered the Colombian government a credit of $350-million to assist in managing the disaster. Bad weather has also hit the coffee, coal and agriculture sectors.
Neighbouring Venezuela is suffering as well, with thousands of people displaced.
The heavy rains in recent months are due to the La Nina weather phenomenon, which the government's weather office expects to last into the first quarter of next year and could increase rainfall in the next rainy season at end March.
Flooding of farm land and the erosion of roads will push up food and transport costs and raise inflation but not so much as to change consumer price targets, officials have said. - Reuters