A huge wave of mud surprised the inhabitants of El Castaño, in Maracay, on the afternoon of this Monday, October 17th, when the Palmarito creek broke out of its bed to take everything in its path after the torrential rains that had begun at about 2:30 in the afternoon.
By La Patilla – Marianny Castellanos
Oct 18, 2022
“The landslide took many by surprise, it was not something expected. When the river overflowed, it had already stopped raining and it was sunny.” This is how Daniel Flores began the story of what happened that Monday afternoon through his Twitter account @ChivoQmasMea
An unexpected event lasting less than 20 minutes was experienced by Daniel and all the residents of “Palmarito” and the sectors surrounding El Castaño in the northern area of Girardot Municipality. For many they were the scariest minutes of their lifes, and for others it was much less fortunate, the last minutes of their lives.
“At approximately 2:30 pm a light rain fell in El Castaño, but it had rained too much in previous days, mainly on the slopes of the Henri Pittier park. To give you an idea of how violent it all was. I went to the bank at 1:30 pm, I arrived to withdraw cash at 2:05 pm, I started to return home at 2:20 pm and at that time the landslide was already in full swing, so I could not get there until 3:30 p.m. and by that time my house filled with mud,” continued explaining Flores.
During the trip to his house, he was able to verify that the devastation “was total”, since at the time of the flash flood many people were in the street working, moving through the area, while others were in their homes.
In fact, he mentioned that just at the time of the landslide the children were leaving the Dolores Mendoza school, which is in the middle of the main avenue. “Just 300 meters from that school, 7 houses disappeared. I hope all those guys are okay. I have no information about this,” he stated.
Regarding the response by the Civil Protection authorities and rescue groups, he stressed that it was “exemplary”, since after the natural event, in less than half an hour, Civil Protection officials, Firefighters, rescuers, police, National Guard, and ambulances showed up.
“An hour after the landslide, heavy machines were already arriving to try to unblock the road. The helicopters evacuated several people who are in care centers,” Flores said.
“I Do Not Wish This To Anyone”
Unlike Daniel, who did not witness the minutes of anguish that seized hundreds of residents of this mountainous area, Ashlyn Calanche confesses that it was a moment that she does not wish on anyone.
“I was cooking when suddenly I began to hear the screams of neighbors who began to warn that the river was overflowing. I did not know what to do. When I was going to leave, the water began to enter the house and as I could, I got on the roof with the girl, because I did not know the magnitude of what this would be,” said Calanche, who still does not know where she got the strength to climb to the top of the house.
She explained that, although the house is not seriously damaged like the others that are on the main avenue, she fears that the rains will continue and “hit” this area even more.
What Science Says
In a conversation with Luiraima Salazar, a geological engineer from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), she explained that the events recorded in the state of Aragua are cased by torrential rains with a high flow of water that have saturated the upper parts of the water sheds, which In turn, permeate the soils of these areas and make them prone to overflow slide and generate a flow of debris or rubble that descends abruptly and quickly, by the effect of gravity, towards the areas with a lesser slope.
Despite the fact that the inhabitants of El Castaño assure that “an event like this had never occurred before”, Salazar points out that it had, since in these sectors you can observe large blocks of rocks distributed throughout the urbanized areas.
“How did they get there? Through events similar to yesterday. Yes, events of this type have happened before below these slopes. It is only necessary to try to collect statistics of events of this type and thus be able to contribute to the creation of a map of susceptibility of events of this nature. But they have happened before,” reiterated the geologist.
Regarding the overflow of the ravine, she warned that the hydrographic basin that integrates the ravines of Castaño and Corozal, the Las Delicias River, must be followed up, since they feed the Madre Vieja River and flow into Lake Valencia, because they can generate floods downstream product of the rise of these rivers.
Las Tejerías and El Castaño
When asked about the similarity between the events that occurred in Las Tejerías and the most recent one in El Castaño, she mentioned that both are climatic events involving prolonged torrential rains. However, the difference lies in the affected area.
“In Las Tejerías we have an area where the slope becomes flatter, where the wide pluvial fan is formed and the greatest amount of sediment is deposited, creating a greater affected area. While in the El Castaño area, as it has a much steeper slope from Palmarito to practically El Toro de Las Delicias, it facilitated the flow of water. In one we have a great human and material loss (Las Tejerías), while in the other (El Castaño) unfortunately we have three people deceased and the material damage itself has not yet been quantified,” she said.
She called for planning and carrying out soil studies before developing any building, in order to avoid construction in risk areas, or failing that, to use technology and materials that can resist natural events.
“If there is a seismic event, what kills is not the event as such, be it seismic or climatic. Weather events are always going to happen, especially at this time. A call to empower ourselves with information and create early warnings so that these events do not translate into material and human losses, which are the most unfortunate,” she pointed out.
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