On the recordDecember 21, 2010
I want to take a minute to call attention to a humanitarian disaster that has received only passing mention in the international press and which many Senators may be unaware of. On December 7, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos declared a state of ``economic, social and ecologic emergency'' as a result of massive flooding which he called a ``public calamity.'' Heavy rains over a period of months have caused landslides that have swept away homes and rivers to overflow their banks, and now large areas of the country are inundated with water. According to a December 17 report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs which is assisting the Colombian government, so far 2.1 million people have been affected by the flooding, 270 have died, 62 are missing, and more than 300,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed. Thousands of miles of roads have been obstructed, damaged or destroyed. Twenty-eight of the country's 32 departments, which comprise 61 percent of the country, have been affected. President Santos said the number of homeless from the flooding could reach 2 million, and that ``the tragedy the country is going through has no precedents in our history.''
