Venezuela: Floods - Feb 2005

Karina Wong

HPG Working Paper

1. Introduction

This case study forms part of a broader research project on the role of the affected state in humanitarian action. It contributes to a comparative study of how a wide range of governments respond to humanitarian crises. In particular, it focuses on the relationship between the state and domestic non-governmental actors and the international community. The overarching research question for the project is: what would good humanitarian governance look like?

In Brief

Appeal target: CHF 2,439,411 (USD 1,923,019 or EUR 1,581,564);

Appeal coverage: 74.4%.

This Annual Report reflects activities implemented over a one-year period; they form part of, and are based on, longer-term, multi-year planning (refer below to access the detailed logframe documents).

Caracas (dpa) - Heavy rainfall in Venezuela has killed five people and forced 900 others from their homes, press reports said Friday.

El Nacional newspaper said a young man was electrocuted and another dragged away by a torrent of water in the state of Zulia.

More than 200 families in Venezuela's Vargas, Miranda and Mérida States received food in the wake of massive flooding, via a grant from FHI.

Partner organization RENACSENIV (Red Nacional Cristiana de Servicio al Niño Venezolano) provided food and personal hygiene items to families who had lost homes and personal belongings due to floods that came in January and February.

1. On April 5 (Tue), the Government of Japan has decided to extend emergency assistance in kind equivalent to about 15 million yen including electric generators, plastic tanks, tents and blankets, to the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which has sustained great damage from flooding caused by heavy rains.

The Federal Foreign Office has allocated 100,000 euro from its humanitarian aid budget for flood victims in the Venezuelan Province of Mérida. In cooperation with the Venezuelan Red Cross the German Red Cross will distribute water filters and containers as well as hygiene kits and kitchen sets to 1,900 particularly needy families. The aid is also intended to reduce the risk of widespread outbreaks of disease.

In February the South American country was hit by violent storms, resulting in severe flooding in which at least 34 people lost their lives.

Silver Spring, Maryland - ADRA is providing emergency assistance to 150 families affected by flooding in Venezuela.

Concentrating its efforts in the towns of Tovar, Santa Cruz de Mora, and Puerto Rico, ADRA is providing locally-purchased kitchen, hygiene, and food materials to benefit as many as 1,000 persons.

Issue:

Madrid, 18 de febrero de 2005 - En respuesta a las peticiones del Ministro del Interior y Justicia venezolano, la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (AECI) ha concedido una subvención por un importe de 250.000 euros a la Protección Civil de Venezuela para adquirir alimentos, medicamentos, agua, ajuar doméstico y material de higiene, destinados a atender a la población damnificada por las inundaciones.

PANAMA CITY, 18 February 2005 - More than 350,000 people have been affected by torrential rains and floodwaters in Guyana, Venezuela and Colombia. Guyana was the worst hit with almost 40% of its population being affected by last weeks floods.

UREÑA, Venezuela, Feb. 18 (UNHCR) - Children roused from sleep first noticed the rising flood water lapping at their knees at Sabana Larga, a shanty town in the Venezuelan border municipality of Ureña hosting a hundred people, most of them Colombian refugees.

"They began shouting and woke us up," said one resident.

In Brief
CHF 100,000 has been allocated for this operation from the federation's disaster relief emergency fund (DREF)

The situation

February 17, 2005, Baltimore, MD - Thousands of people are stranded and in need of shelter after heavy rains provoked violent landslides and massive flooding in the low-lying coastal areas of Venezuela, Guyana and Colombia. Nearly 110,000 people are displaced from their homes, part of an estimated 250,000 who have been directly affected by the flooding in these three countries. There are 50 known dead as rescue workers search for the missing and try to reach stranded communities.

Bogota (dpa) - Colombian rescue squads on Thursday found another 14 bodies of people killed by flooding during two weeks of rain in the Andes, driving up the total death toll in Colombia and Venezuela to 116.

The director of the Red Cross in northeastern Santander province, Duberney Pabon, said the bodies of the farmers were found in a river near the town of Lebrija. He said that with the 14 deaths, the number of lives claimed by the rains in Colombia rose to 55.

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Venezuelan rescue workers on Wednesday said they had recovered at least 40 bodies around a remote mountain town hardest hit by floods and mudslides in the nation's western Andes.

Torrential rains have burst river banks and swept away homes, bridges and roads, killing at least 96 people in Venezuela and neighboring Colombia in about a week.

In Venezuela's western Merida State, authorities hunted for the missing while supplying food and water to Santa Cruz de Mora, where floods tore through villages and a terminal filled with buses and …

Ref: OCHA/GVA - 2005/35
OCHA Situation Report No. 2

Caracas/Bogota (dpa) - Heavy rains in Venezuela and neighbouring Colombia have claimed at least 85 lives and forced tens of thousands from their homes, officials said Monday.

The rains, affecting the Andes region since February 8 and destroying roads and bridges, also left dozens of people missing in Venezuela and Colombia, officials said.

Various parts of the state of Merida remained without electricity and drinking water. Officials declared a health alert fearing the breakout of epidemics in flooded areas.

Episcopal Relief and Development is providing emergency assistance in Venezuela after torrential rains caused flooding and mudslides throughout the country. At least 37 people have been killed over the past week and 42 others have been injured. Over 16,000 people are homeless after their homes were washed away or partly destroyed by the rains. Thousands of families have been evacuated from communities along the coast blocked by overflowing rivers.

by Cristina Estrada

Washington, D.C. - In response to heavy rains, landslides and persistent flooding in the north-central region of Venezuela that began on February 7, the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) is providing $50,000 through the U.S. Embassy in Caracas to the Venezuelan Red Cross for the purchase and distribution of emergency relief items. These items include hygiene kits, oral rehydration supplies and potable water. In addition, a USAID/OFDA consultant based in Venezuela is working closely with the U.S.