Mudslides in Colombia Kill at Least Six

Mudslides in Colombia Kill at Least Six
Fri Jun 10, 7:29 PM ET

Torrential rains in northwestern Colombia unleashed mudslides Friday on an impoverished mountainside neighborhood in Colombia's coffee-growing region, killing at least six people, officials said.

Four members of the same family, including two children, were killed when a slide washed away their wooden shack-like home near Manizales, 100 miles northwest of the capital, Bogota, the Disaster Prevention Office said.

Grim-faced relief workers covered in mud lifted the victims' bodies from the rubble.

Another two people died in the nearby village of Villa Maria when their home was hit by an avalanche of dirt. Four people were reported missing.

At least 20 families have been forced to abandon their homes in the area.

Many slum neighborhoods in and around Manizales, nestled in the Central Cordillera of the Andes, are built on the side of steep mountains without proper foundations and are particularly vulnerable during seasonal torrential rains.

Dozens of people are killed across Colombia every year during the rainy seasons, mainly in flooding, landslides and road accidents.

By Lionheart on Jun 11, 2005, 02:53 in Friendly Talkzone.

kat1 (Moderator) says on Jun 11, 2005, 08:23:

My dad told me that this morning when I talked to him, and in Villavicencio is the same, it's been raining non-stop, He hasn't been able to go to the farm because the River is so high over the bridge that is imposible for a car to go through.

engage brain before opening mouth