Dozens die in Venezuela, Colombia floods
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-13 09:43

Rescue workers struggled on Saturday to reach remote villages in Venezuela's Andean mountains cut off by torrential rains and landslides that have killed more than 40 people in nearly a week.

In neighboring Colombia, heavy rains triggered flooding and mudslides that killed at least 18 people and forced 22,000 more from their homes in the northeastern part of the country, officials said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez flies over flood damaged areas in Miranda state near Caracas, February 12, 2005. Rescue workers struggled to reach remote villages in Venezuela's Andean mountains that were cut off by torrential rains and landslides that have killed at least 26 people in nearly a week.[Reuters]

Venezuelan authorities said they had found at least 25 bodies in Santa Cruz de Mora in Merida state and feared many more were dead after rains flooded rivers and sent scores of mudslides tumbling onto homes, roads and bridges.

"We've found 25 bodies," Alexis Rodriquez, mayor of Pinto Salinas district in Merida, told state television. "We're cut off from Merida and there is only access by air and they are opening a path to get people out."

A car is seen after being pulled down by the flooded Mocoties River in the state of Merida, 800 km west of Caracas, February 12, 2005.[Reuters]

Authorities and witnesses said several buses at a terminal in Merida were swept away by flood waters. Local television showed battered homes and cars covered with mud and debris.

Military helicopters and navy vessels this week evacuated more than 15,000 stranded tourists and residents from the coastal states near Caracas after mudslides and swollen rivers destroyed roads and shanty homes in poor neighborhoods.

At least 18 people died in flooding and land slips in Caracas and neighboring areas. The weather cleared up along the coast on Saturday, but heavy rains lashed Tachira and Merida states in the western mountains near Colombia.

President Hugo Chavez, touring a camp for people left homeless by floods, said earlier one child was washed away in Tachira and seven bodies had been recovered in Merida state.

Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter and a key crude supplier to the United States, says the storms and floods have not affected its oil production or shipments.

The rains have stirred fears about a repeat of a 1999 disaster when thousands were buried alive or swept out to sea after storms turned hillsides into rivers of mud and rock in Venezuela's Vargas State on the Caribbean coast.

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