Image
© Unknown
Caracas - The ceaseless rains that have fallen for several weeks in Venezuela caused three deaths in Caracas on Friday and two earlier in Miranda state, while authorities in the northwestern state of Falcon were forced to declare a state of emergency.

Before dawn Friday a mudslide in a poor neighborhood near the capital's downtown area buried three children ages 11, 8 and 2, while leaving four people injured.

The bodies of the three young victims were recovered by firefighters, while the injured - two adults and two minors - were hospitalized.

On Thursday the downpours in Miranda state in the northern part of the country left two people dead and more than 1,000 families affected, the regional director of Civil Protection, Victor Lira, said.

The official said that the swollen Cupira River in the eastern part of the state swept away and drowned one person, while another was buried in a mudslide.

Streets were flooded in the Barlovento region of Miranda state, where "631 homes are flooded more than a meter (3 feet) deep in water," Lira said.

In Falcon, Gov. Stella Lugo decreed a state of emergency after 19 municipalities were flooded and some 14,000 people were affected by the storms.

Lugo said that three people have gone missing and some 2,500 homes have been flooded or badly damaged by the rains.

Figures from the National Meteorology and Hydrology Institute, or Inameh, show that this year has been unusually rainy, a contrast to the drought on 2009, the worst since 1948.

According to the Hydrometeorological Engineering Department of the Central University of Venezuela, if the rains keep up for several more days, 2010 will be the rainiest year in the last four decades or more.

According to that department, the annual average rainfall in Caracas is 893.3 millimeters (35 inches), yet so far this year 1,122.8 millimeters (44 inches) have already fallen.

The rains have also affected the Andean states of Merida and Tachira, the latter bordering on Colombia.

According to the experts at Inameh, atmospheric instability in the Caribbean has generated the torrential rains in Venezuela, which have continued beyond the usual rainy season that normally ends in the first half of November.