Flooding has become widespread in Venezuela killing at least 20 people and destroying thousands of homes. The landslides have swept away houses built on steep hillsides, mostly occurring in the poor area of the capitol leaving approximately 5,600 people homeless. Some of the worst areas hit were the costal states of Falcon, Miranda and Vargas and the capitol district of Caracas, where a state of emergency has been declared.
More heavy rain is expected to continue for several days and school have been closed to protect the children and keep traffic off the roads. One of the main roads linking to Caracas has been cut off by landslides and flights have been disrupted.
Schools, universities and army barracks are providing temporary shelters for thousands of people that are homeless .So far President Hugo Chavez has had no takers to his offer to put people up in the presidential palace .The rainy season this year has been extremely severe as a result of the climatic phenomenon known as La Nina which is caused by colder than typical water currants along the Pacific coast.
The country’s worst natural disaster in modern times was in December of 1999 when the floods killed up to 30,000 people,
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