There are already 454 families affected by the floods in six neighborhoods of Puerto Wilches, Santander, due to the sudden increases in the Magdalena River, which dawned on Saturday, April 9, with an increase of 10 centimeters in its level.
The commander of the municipality's fire brigade, Darismel Oliveros, confirmed that water had reached the urban area and flooded homes, farms and palm crops.
“In the Bellavista neighborhood there are already 270 flooded, in the Torcoroma neighborhood there are 70, in the Unidos there are 52, in the Embankment 31 and that adds up to 423 families affected. Water has been put into their homes and we are dealing with those situations,” said the commander of the fire department.
In the morning, the tributary entered the Bella Vista and Unidos neighborhoods, where several families have lost their belongings due to the waters, which, according to Civil Defense estimates, are more than 270 families affected by the floods.
Hermes Bayona, one of the victims of the Unidos neighborhood, asked for help to overcome the emergency, “please do whatever work you have to do, we had already warned of the increase in the flow of the Magdalena River, we are 70 families affected by the overflow of the Magdalena River”.
For her part, Yasmary Gutiérrez, a resident of Puerto Wilches who has been affected by the floods, told Noticias Caracol, that she has “five girls and lately the water is in the house and we have everything up because we really have nowhere to put things, because we don't have anywhere to lift them.”
Likewise, Estebana Piñerez, another of those affected by the floods, asked: “that they help us, that they collaborate with markets, with what you can, to help us. I'm a displaced woman, we don't have anywhere to be either. We're practically on the street.”
For now, according to information from the newspaper Vanguardia, Puerto Wilches authorities have been touring the area to census and thus relocate families affected by the floods caused by heavy rains.
The Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam) has called for caution in some municipalities, especially in Puerto Wilches, where the emergency could be aggravated by the rains in Santander that it has predicted for this Saturday, Sunday and Easter, according to the institute.
It is worth remembering that for four days the inhabitants of the rural area have been affected by flooding of their farms, crops and loss of animals due to the overflow of the Magdalena River. In the Vuelta Perico sector, the authorities carry out work to build a vase containing water.
After last April 8, the vase that contained the tributary broke, flooding farms, streets and oil palm crops in the Sitio Nuevo district.
The Santander Disaster Risk Management Office attended the emergency from the Vuelta Perico sector, another area next to the Magdalena River where the vase also broke.
In this area, the authorities installed big bags, concrete hexapods and pipe jacking to contain the emergency caused by the La Niña Phenomenon in this region of Magdalena Medio.
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