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Bolivia Floods Kill 38, More Heavy Rains Forecast
A woman speaks along a flooded street on the outskirts of Trinidad, some 400 km (249 miles) northeast of La Paz, February 5, 2014. PHOTO BY REUTERS/David Mercado
06/02/2014
LA PAZ (Reuters) - Torrential rain and floods in Bolivia have killed 38 people and left many homeless, said the government on Thursday, as forecasters predicted more heavy rainfall with the north of the Andean country again likely to be the worst affected.
The Ministry of Defense said it had flown in food aid and the army was evacuating families from the worst affected regions, such as the Amazonian and cattle-rearing department of Beni, northeast of the capital La Paz.
Around 100,000 head of cattle are threatened and some 6,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed, around 0.2 percent of Bolivia's total, the government said.
More than 40,000 households have been affected by the heavy seasonal rains since October, around five times more than last year, with the central and northern regions of the country hardest hit.
(Reporting by Daniel Ramos; Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Sophie Hares)
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