Colombian authorities reported Sunday that the death toll from landslides caused by heavy rains this weekend has risen to three people in the region of Cundinamarca, in the center of the country.
«The Bogota Fire Rescue Group reports that the bodies of the two men missing yesterday due to a landslide were found (…). We continue to work in the area,» said Nicolas Garcia Bustos, governor of Cundinamarca.
The rescue of these two people is in addition to the death of a motorcyclist who died after being swept away by the current, reports the newspaper ‘El Colombiano’.
The Bogota Fire Department has informed that its specialized groups are still searching for a person who is still missing.
In the framework of the rainy season, Colombia’s central government has decreed a «natural disaster», a measure that has released 2.1 billion pesos to attend to the victims and the damaged infrastructure.
«Public calamity is declared in Bogota to attend more quickly to the winter emergency. According to forecasts, rainfall will increase in the coming days,» said the mayor of the capital, Claudia Lopez Hernandez.
Lopez explained, after visiting the affected areas, that 180 people are working with about thirty dump trucks and several excavators to clear the way for access to the neighborhoods.
«We agreed with the community to set up three shelters in community halls (…) with emergency kits,» announced the mayor. The mayor announced after indicating that the supplies would arrive in the afternoon, according to her Twitter profile.
