venezuelan mudslides

• info and cause

  • 40-50% above the normal in most of eastern Caribbean
  • 15th – 16th December = slopes of 2000 metre Mt Avila
  • 1999
• The disaster was not just related to heavy rainfall. The government blamed corrupt politicians from previous governments and planners who had allowed shanty towns to grow up in steep valleys surrounding the coast and the capital, Caracas.
• Immediate response


  1. Search-and-rescue operation to find any survivors in the mudflows, landslides and buildings that had been damaged or destroyed

  2. Few survivors were found after the first few days

  3. Provide emergency relief - accommodation, water purification tablets, food and medicines to those in need

  4. The relief operation was severely hindered by the poor state of the infrastructure, which made operations difficult
• The government had already been planning to redistribute part of Venezuela's population away from the overcrowded coast to the interior.
• Up to 70 per cent of Venezuela's population live in this small area.
• Impacts


  • Landslides of rock and mud
  • Buried large parts of 300km stretch of central coast
  • Killed 10,000 to 50,000 people in the narrow strip of land between the mountains and Caribbean sea
  • Over 150,000 left homeless in states of Vargas and Miranda
  • Most of dead buried 8-10m below mudslides
  • Destroyed roads and bridges and factories, buried crops destroyed telecommunications
  • Ruined tourist industry· International airport of Caracas was temporarily closed Flash floods damaged hundreds of containers in Maiquetia seaport
  • Economic damage of US$3 billion