Bogota, Colombia – Eight people were reported dead and 34 others remained missing in the wake of more than a dozen mudslides in the southwestern Colombian province of Valle del Cauca following heavy rains, Civil Defense officials said.
Eight of those who have disappeared are soldiers from a unit of engineers who were caught – along with 20 local residents – by one of the avalanches of earth and stones caused by the rains, according to the army’s 3rd Brigade, which is based in Cali, the provincial capital.
In a report provided to EFE, brigade commander Gen. Carlos Enrique Sanchez said that the soldiers were at Kilometro Cuarenta, a rural base along the highway linking Cali with Buenaventura, Colombia’s main port on the Pacific.
The highway was closed and dozens of trucks, buses and cars were stranded on what is the chief route into and out of the crucial port.
According to the military assessment, the mudslides destroyed 20 rural homes in Kilometro Cuarenta and another 26 in Bendiciones, where six people are missing.
In addition to army and navy personnel, the emergency is being coped with by the Red Cross and Colombia’s Civil Defense.
On Wednesday, the emergency and military personnel used helicopters to evacuate a total of 128 people whose homes were damaged in Buenaventura.
The disappearance of the soldiers led Gen. Sanchez to set up his command post in the area.
Floods and mudslides during Colombia’s rainy season, which started last month, have left more than 40 people dead and some 37,000 others homeless.
The heavy rains in the Andean nation have also caused extensive damage to crops.
