Wet weather washes through Americas (Updated)

Stormy weather has barreled though several Latin American countries this week. The most tragic example so far has been in Brazil where 200 people are missing and feared dead after a massive mudslide buried several homes in Rio de Janeiro. Though twenty people have been rescued a civil defense spokesman Pedro Machado told Brazil’s Globo “in our experience, it's an instant death (for those caught in their homes).” Officials warned that more landslides could occur, thus raising the death toll since the storms began on Monday to beyond 175.

North of Rio a state of emergency was declared for the Ecuadorian province of Napo where rivers overflowed and led to a pair of deaths. Basements and storefronts in several neighborhoods of the Colombian capital of Bogota were full of water as a result of heavy rains Thursday evening.

While trying to bounce back from January’s deadly earthquake Haiti is preparing for the upcoming rainy season. Wet weather last month forced several thousand families to be evacuated from the southern part of the country. According to Oxfam America international relief groups have asked the Haitian government to do a better job in relocating earthquake survivors who have sought refuge in makeshift tent camps:

The government has recently identified a site in Corail Cesselesse (15 km north of Port-au-Prince) for the resettlement of 7,500 people from the Golf Club in Petionville, and relocation has begun with little advanced notice…

“We realize this is an emergency relocation due to impending rains and we are moving with utmost urgency to prepare this site. But future moves cannot be done in this last minute fashion. The government and the international community must ensure that any moves are well-planned and adhere to humanitarian principles that ensure people’s safety and respect their rights,” said Marcel Stoessel, head of Oxfam in Haiti.

Update: Ironically several Caribbean nations "including Guyana, Grenada, St. Lucia and Barbados" have endured "record" droughts since last year.

Image- Al Jazeera English (“The slum hit by Wednesday's mudslide had been built on a former rubbish dump.”)
Online Sources- Oxfam America, UPI, BBC News, Xinhua, People’s Daily Online, Caracol Radio, The Lain Americanist