Days of torrential rains triggered deadly flash floods and avalanches of water, mud and boulders that devastated nine states along Venezuela's north coast, killing many thousands and leaving many more homeless. Officials also are airing pictures of the children on television in hopes they'll be identified. Others left homeless by the floods were being sheltered in sports centers, schools and churches.
Entire communities are still under water or buried in mud.
Over the last eleven days, heavy and continuous rains have caused flooding and landslides in the states of Miranda, Vargas, the Federal district of Caracas, the island of Margarita, Yaracuy, Falcon, Carabobo, Zulia and Tachira. Rivers overflowed their banks, and water raged through towns and villages, destroying bridges, washing away roads and hampering rescue and relief efforts. In Caracas , the worst-hit areas were the shantytowns perched precariously on steep mountainsides that were swept away by mudlsides. One third of the city's six million residents lived in mountainside shantytowns. Thousands of people are evacuated by boat along beaches were thousands more were washed out to sea.