Due to continued heavy rains, a landslide came to hit the city of La Paz in Bolivia destroying at least 400 homes Sunday.
Meanwhile, five people were reportedly drowned when a swollen river have swept away a minibus.
Counting homeless families resulted to more than 10,000 residents as evacuation was set forth by the authorities especially to the poor ones along the areas of Kupini II.
Roads and bridges were seen with cracks in the affected locations so officials decided to announce that citizens along the hotspots must transfer into a safer place last Saturday night.
There were no other reports regarding fatalities except that of the five individuals who have been drowned. There have been many significant damages brought by the said calamity.
It was called as the worst event that La Paz has ever seen according to the city government spokesman, Edwin Herrera.
Added to that were almost 5,000 affected residents and the slide is still affecting neighborhoods of the lower areas.
Maria Elena Siles, a local resident, have testified that her neighbors were running around telling her to get out. When she looked out of her window, there were no homes to the left or to the right of her own house.
It was a good thing that Siles was able to flee before the entire hill had collapsed yesterday, although she was one of those who became homeless.
According to her, she lost everything but authorities would not let them return to their site because of the fear that possible slides would occur.
Residents made it a point to save their belongings such as their furniture and other valuables even if drizzles were found to become persistent.
To aid in the evacuation and recovery operations, troops were mobilized. In fact, the Bolivian military aircrafts sent relief goods to the areas that seem to have been hit the worst.
The severe heavy rains were said to be the effects of the La Niña – a phenomenon brought by the Pacific Ocean’s shift in currents.
Aside from Bolivia, other countries like Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and Central America have also experienced severe flooding in the previous months.
