At least 43 people are dead and another 56 are still missing following a massive landslide in Las Tejerías, Venezuela, on Sunday. The landslide, fueled by a week of torrential rain, destroyed more than 1,000 homes, drowning or burying alive those still inside. Magaly Colmenares told the AP her grandson “was buried with a man who tried to help him and his 3-month-old sister. … I found my angel, and we have to look for his little sister too.”
Venezuelan officials blamed climate change for exacerbating the rains, while many also blamed the government for insufficiently preparing and investing in necessary infrastructure.
“In Venezuela, these kinds of intense phenomena shouldn’t surprise us, and we should be better prepared to address them,” Juan Carlos Sánchez, a former Venezuelan environmental official who participated in the negotiation of the 1992 UN Climate Change Convention and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, told the Washington Post. (AP, Washington Post $, Reuters, Wall Street Journal $; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation increase)