Massive landslide hits Venezuela, leaving at least 30 people dead and 54 missing
A massive landslide hit the town of Las Tejerías, Venezuela on October 9, 2022, leaving at least 30 people dead and 54 others missing. The town is loaded 87 km (54 miles) SW of Caracas. This is one of Venezuela’s biggest landslides in decades.
According to officials, the landslide hit the central area of the town after five streams overflowed on October 9.
“There are still people walled in,” Vice President Delcy Rodríguez told state-owned Venezolana de Televisión.
“We are trying to rescue them, to rescue them alive.”
Major Gen. Carlos Pérez Ampueda, the vice minister for risk management and civil protection, said that several people were reported missing in the El Béisbol and La Agotada neighborhoods in the north of the town. Dozens of homes were damaged by the landslide.1
Rescuers were carrying out search operations with trained dogs and drones, Pérez Ampueda said. Crews of workers and heavy machinery removed debris to clear roads and restore electricity and water services.
“The images appear to show large amounts of mud and debris in the town, including a considerable volume of wood. The debris seems to be predominantly fine-grained,” landslides expert Dr. Dave Petley said.2
“There are also a small number of videos online, captured during the event, which mostly seem to show fast moving, sediment-rich flows.”
“It is quite unclear at the moment as to the sequence of events at Las Tejerías. Particularly pertinent here might be the large channel that flows southwards through the town to join the main channel, draining the hills to the north,” Petley said.
“A reasonable first-order hypothesis for this disaster may be that it was caused by mudflows traveling down one or more of these channels, triggered by heavy rainfall in the hills to the north. These events could have resulted simply from the heavy rainfall, from multiple landslides in the catchment that have transformed into channelized mudflows, or from a valley-blocking landslide in one or more channels, that breached to create a large flow. At the moment this is purely speculation.”
References:
1 A rain-fueled landslide sweeps through Venezuela town, leaving more than 20 dead – AP – October 10, 2022
2 The 8-9 October 2022 disaster at Las Tejerías in Venezuela – The Landslide Blog – October 10, 2022
Featured image credit: CGTN (stillshot)
If you value what we do here, create your ad-free account and support our journalism.
Your support makes a difference
Dear valued reader,
We hope that our website has been a valuable resource for you.
The reality is that it takes a lot of time, effort, and resources to maintain and grow this website. We rely on the support of readers like you to keep providing high-quality content.
If you have found our website to be helpful, please consider making a contribution to help us continue to bring you the information you need. Your support means the world to us and helps us to keep doing what we love.
Support us by choosing your support level – Silver, Gold or Platinum. Other support options include Patreon pledges and sending us a one-off payment using PayPal.
Thank you for your consideration. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Teo Blašković
Commenting rules and guidelines
We value the thoughts and opinions of our readers and welcome healthy discussions on our website. In order to maintain a respectful and positive community, we ask that all commenters follow these rules:
We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these rules. By commenting on our website, you agree to abide by these guidelines. Thank you for helping to create a positive and welcoming environment for all.