Geologists warn that Caracas is due for a major earthquake soon, and mudslides and flooding remain a constant threat along the country s denuded hillsides and rivers. The mudslides of December 1999 left the country even more vulnerable than ever before. The enormous number of mudslide victims and resulting impact on the country has left a mark. The American Red Cross is working to prepare the Venezuelan Red Cross for the inevitable. As part of an overall relief and recovery plan that began in the aftermath of the mudslides, the American Red Cross is training the Venezuelan Red Cross in disaster preparedness and response.
Some families still live in homes that are half buried in mud.
The training could not be more timely, said Manuel Nieves, an emergency services official with the Venezuelan Red Cross. Lack of communication between government officials, relief organizations and emergency personnel led to chaos in the aftermath of the mudslides. At the Red Cross headquarters in Caracas, volunteers who showed up to help found a building abuzz with people, but nobody could tell them what to do. The Red Cross had neglected to put someone in charge of managing volunteers. Donations were lost because there was nobody to track them.