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Colombia

Colombia: floods affect more than 1.5 million people

Silvia Ballen, Colombian Red Cross

The intense rains that have affected Colombia in recent monts have caused the overflow of creeks and rivers in 28 of the 32 departments in the country, leaving more than one and a half million people without homes, 195 confirmed deaths, 241 injured and more than 100 people reported are still reported as missing.

Road access to communities is still severely limited due to the severe structural damage caused by floods and landslides to roads and bridges. At the moment some 1,820 houses are reported as destroyed and more than a quarter of a million more have been damaged by the disaster.

With their feet underwater

Maricel is 25 and has a pair of twin daughters, Ana and Sofía. Together with her cousin, and many of her neighbours who have also been affected by the floods, Maricel has approached a local school that is now transformed into a relief distribution point run by the Colombian Red Cross.

She is the head of one of the 300.000 families that are suffering the harsh weather that keeps hitting 28 departments in Colombia. According to Maricel it has rained for days and days without end, "My house is full of water, as are those of my neighbours. But now I'm here receiving some food for me and my daughters something a lot of other families need right now, and I'm very grateful". As they receive their food parcels, Maricel and her two daughters have their feet underwater.

The rain takes no breaks

In a school in a vulnerable town in Cartagena city, the Colombian Red Cross volunteers have organized the distribution of relief items in the form of standarized food parcels, a complicated task, as it involves a carefully documented census of the people affected by the floods.

"We must organize people in the middle of the rain in order to assist them. All of them keep getting wet while waiting in line, some with children, and every single one of them are tired and hungry. We can not leave here without delivering the help we came her to provide," says a Colombian Red Cross volunteer who quickly disappears back into the crowd again.

In this school, which was also affected by the flood, 160 food parcels for 800 people were delivered under the rain.

Red Cross Action

More than 354 tonnes of humanitarian aid has been organized by the Colombian Red Cross for more than 22,340 families affected by the rainy season in the regions of Bolívar, Chochó, Atlántico and Magdalena. Other items had been previously mobilized to the departments of Córdoba, Sucre, Cesar Valle, and many others, reaching more than 300,000 people in the relief distribution lines of both food and non-food items, emergency shelter, water and sanitation.

Up until today the colombian people have donated to the Red Cross more than 438 tonnes of in-kind items and some 480 million of Colombian Pesos (more than 250,000 dollars). More than 780 pints of blood have also been donated from communities to the Red Cross health services.

According to forecasts the rains are set to continue, but thanks to the support of the people, the Colombian Red Cross will intensify its operation in the affected regions, reaching those who need it the most.