VENEZUELA: AUTHORITIES FEAR HEAVY CASUALTIES AS MUDLSIDES ENGULF POOR NEIGHBOURHOODS IN CARACAS.

Record ID: 184473

  • Title: VENEZUELA: AUTHORITIES FEAR HEAVY CASUALTIES AS MUDLSIDES ENGULF POOR NEIGHBOURHOODS IN CARACAS.
  • Date: 16th December 1999
  • Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (DECEMBER 15, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. TV: WATER FLOWING THROUGH STREETS, PEOPLE STANDING ON HILL 0.07 2. CU/ZOOM/GV: WATER RUSHING BY DOOR OF HOME 0.18 3. GV: VARIOUS OF WATER RUSHING THROUGH STREET 0.33 4. GV: PEOPLE CLEANING UP MUD 0.38 5. GV: PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH MUD 0.47 6. GV/TILT: VARIOUS OF MUD COVERED BELONGINGS INSIDE HOME 0.59 7. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED MAN SAYING: "We are in the streets. It (landslide) took everything. It took what we have worked for half our lives. We ask for help, we are in the streets." 1.12 8. CU/ZOOM/GV: DOORWAY FILLED WITH MUD 1.18 CARACAS, VENEZUELA (DECEMBER 16, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. GV: HOMES COVERED IN MUD AND DEBRIS/ WATER FLOWING THROUGH STREET (3 SHOTS) 1.36 10. GV.ZOOM/LV: CARS BURIED IN MUD AND DEBRIS 1.44 11. MV: DOORWAY FILLED WITH MUD 1.49 12. MCU: WOMEN HUGGING 1.57 13. GV: BOY STANDING, HOLDING HIS BELONGINGS 2.02 14. GV: MUD AND DEBRIS ON STREET 2.10 15. GV: PEOPLE PULLING OUT BELONGINGS FROM DEBRIS 2.16 16. GV: VIEW OF VEHICLES BURIED IN MUD 2.21 17. GV: VIEW OF DESTROYED HOME 2.30 18. TV: PEOPLE STANDING ON DEBRIS 2.34 19. GV: VEHICLE TRAVELLING ON MUDDY STREET 2.41 20. GV: PEOPLE CLEANING MUD OUT OF BUS 2.46 21. GV: VIEW OF VEHICLES IN MUD 2.52 Initials SOME GOOD SHOTS Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 31st December 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Reuters ID: LVA299TD1XEV08DF06CWZPEY87NI
  • Story Text: Mudslides triggered by torrential rains have engulfed
    poor neighbourhoods in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

    Authorities fear scores of people may have died.

    Firefighters reported at least 20 people missing,
    following the landslides, which killed 37 people on Wednesday
    (December 15), in a coastal area just north of Caracas.

    Hundreds of residents from low-income areas and shanty
    towns near the Avila mountain overlooking the city were left
    homeless as rivers burst their banks.

    President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday night that 37
    bodies had been recovered in Vargas state, most of them in La
    Guaira, a port town 35 miles (55 km) north of Caracas close to
    the Simon Bolivar international airport.

    The main highway linking Caracas to the airport was
    remained blocked, and a state of emergency was decreed in
    eight of the country's 23 states following the unseasonal
    downpour.

    In Caracas, many streets were impassable, littered with
    debris and with water up to two feet (0.6 metre) high,
    creating huge traffic jams.Schools were ordered closed for
    the day, and the underground metro was shut down.

    "The rainfall in the past two weeks has been the heaviest
    in 60 years," Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma told the
    Globovision television network.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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