Colombia: The agency declared red alert in the coastal communities in Valle del Cauca and Risaralda

[Moderating Staff]

January 27, 2012

The agency declared red alert in the coastal communities in Valle del Cauca and Risaralda. For those of Antioquia is orange alert.

 

Seeing the pictures of flooding in the village of Candelaria and Jamundí Juanchito (Valle) you would think that the dry season with some rain is over, but it is not.

What happens, according to the Department of Forecasts and Alerts Ideam is that each region has a rainy season and the southern Andean region (Valle, Cauca and Nariño) is beginning.

However, as the river level continues to grow in the Cauca Valley (12 inches above the flood elevation) and Risaralda, warning about the increasing spread of the river to graffiti, Caucasia and Puerto Valdivia.

The National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (DGR) reported that the showers of the past two days in the Valley left 4,000 families homeless in Candelaria, Jamundí and Cali.

"This is a historical situation. Every time it rains we have to get our belongings from the houses because the river is going to leave," said Carmenza Rodallega, a resident of the area of Puerto Nuevo, Cali Colprensa news agency.

The same complaint voiced local inhabitants of Juanchito, in Candelaria, who in December had to leave their homes and some had to protect their belongings in wattles. In some areas, the water reached 1.5 meters in height.

http://www.elcolombiano.com/BancoConocimiento/E/el_cauca_puso_en_ap...