By Mircely Guanipa
LAS TEJERIAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – Hundreds of Venezuelans roamed the streets of Las Tejerias on Tuesday, digging and searching for missing relatives after devastating floods swept through the town over the weekend, leaving many wondering where they would now live.
“I want them to give me a house for my children because I was left homeless. I was left with nothing,” said Yolismar Marin, 22, while sitting in a school serving as a shelter for victims of floods that swept through Las Tejerias on Saturday night.
Though electricity and cellphone coverage has been restored to the town of some 73,000 people, it remains without running water, according to Reuters witnesses.
“We lost everything,” said Marin, accompanied by her two children and husband Devis Manrique, 30. The floods carried mud, rocks, trees and other debris into the town in Venezuela’s Aragua state, destroying houses and businesses.
Government officials who visited Las Tejerias, about 67 kilometers (41.6 miles) southwest from capital Caracas, promised to recover all the houses and businesses affected.
Also at the shelter was Gabriel Castillo, 32, who worked at a hairdressing salon. He told of his search for any sign of his mother in the destruction, even if just her arm.
Castillo was saved after waking up to the noise of the flood, he said. He left home to see what was happening but his mother and aunt were still inside the house when it was buried by mud.
More than 1,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, officials said on Monday, while at least 36 people were killed and another 56 people remain missing.
On Tuesday housewife Jennifer Galindez, 46, buried her one-year-old granddaughter Estefania, who drowned after flood water swept into Galindez’s home.
Galindez’s husband, who had a leg amputated due to severe diabetes, remains missing.
Yenimar Segovia, Estefania’s mother and Galindez’s daughter, said her life had fallen apart.
“I felt like my world had collapsed,” said Segovia, 28, a nurse. “There’s no sign of my dad yet. We’re going to continue searching.”
(Reporting by Mircely Guanipa; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Richard Chang)
