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12 Dead, 145 Missing in Colombia Mudslide

   VOA News 06 December 2010
   A  woman  sits  in  front  of  her home, destroyed by a landslide that
   buried dozens of houses and left dozens trapped beneath mud and rubble
   following  weeks  of drenching rains, in Bello, northwestern Colombia,
   06 Dec. 2010

Photo: AP

   A  woman  sits  in  front  of  her home, destroyed by a landslide that
   buried dozens of houses and left dozens trapped beneath mud and rubble
   following  weeks  of drenching rains, in Bello, northwestern Colombia,
   06 Dec. 2010

   Rescue  officials  say  at  least 12 bodies have been recovered from a
   mudslide in northern Colombia that may have buried another 145.
   Torrential  rains  caused  the  mudslide that engulfed dozens of homes
   Sunday outside Colombia's second-largest city, Medellin.
   Colombian  President  Juan  Manuel  Santos  said  the  unusually heavy
   rainfalls  could  leave  more  than  2 million people homeless. Before
   Sunday's  disaster, heavy rains had killed around 170 people this year
   in Colombia.
   In  neighboring  Venezuela,  driving rains have triggered flooding and
   cave-ins  that  have  killed  34  people  and left an estimated 90,000
   people homeless.
   Officials  blame  the  downpours  on  the  La Nina weather phenomenon,
   during  which  cooler-than-normal  water  temperatures  exist  in  the
   Tropical Pacific Ocean.

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