3 Dead, 5 Injured in Panama Rains
State of Emergency declared in western areas of the country
PANAMA CITY (laht.com) -- At least three people died and five others were injured in a landslide caused by the heavy rains that have deluged western Panama, officials said Sunday.
In the community of Las Nubes, in Chiriqui province, a landslide killed two adults and one child and injured five other people, the head of the Sinaproc emergency management office, Luis Francisco Sucre, said in a statement.
Besides that, the rains, which are being produced by a cold front, have destroyed eight houses, damaged 40 others and forced 174 people to be evacuated to shelters.
Sucre said that in the Boquete district in Chiriqui, specifically in Alto and Bajo Boquete, six homes were destroyed when the rain-swollen Caldera River overflowed its banks, leaving 30 people homeless.
Moreover, in Bugaba district, also in Chiriqui, in the towns of Las Nubes and Guadalupe Arriba, several landslides occurred which destroyed two houses and left 10 people homeless.
So far, 174 people have been sheltered at the Paso Ancho Catholic church in Bugaba, and at the Benigno Tomas Argote high school and at the Abundant Life Ministries church in Boquete.
Elsewhere, in Volcan, the hanging pedestrian bridge that links the town with Paso Ancho and nearby coffee plantations collapsed due to the rains.
The Panamanian Council of Ministers, headed by President Martin Torrijos, on Saturday declared a "state of emergency" for the sectors of the country - in the west and along the Caribbean coast - affected by the rains.
Chief of staff Rafael Mezquita said on Saturday in a communique that the regions affected are in the western provinces of Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui and along the Caribbean coast in the province of Colon.
Given the seriousness of the situation, Torrijos instructed Second Vice President Ruben Arosemena to go to the affected areas on Sunday to supervise the emergency activities of the government and its institutions. EFE
