On the morning of this Thursday, April 7, several sudden increases were reported in Medellin due to heavy downpours. The Official Fire Department of the capital of Antioquia attended to some emergencies that arose due to this situation.
One of these emergencies was reported by the sudden increase in the La Iguana ravine, which caused damage to at least three homes in the sector known as El Pesebre. According to the authorities and relief agencies, structural damage was reported to two of the houses and loss of equipment.
The Mayor's Office of Medellín reported that thanks to the early warning system, approximately eleven homes were evacuated as a preventive measure to avoid further risks in that area of the city.
Other ravines in Medellín that registered high levels due to heavy rains are: La Corcovada, La Honda and La Madera.
“There was a high intensity precipitation event over Robledo and San Cristobal and of moderate intensity in some sectors of the city. Sudden increases were reported in the La Iguana, La Corcovada, La Honda and La Madera streams. We invite you to report all emergencies on the single line 123,” said the deputy director of disaster management of the Dagrd, Carlos Muñoz.
For the care of families, the relief agencies Garsa, Red Cross and Civil Defence were activated preventively.
Contingency plan to respond to emergencies due to heavy rains in Medellin
Due to the situation in the capital of Antioquia during the first rainy season of the year, the Administrative Department for Disaster Risk Management (Dagrd) announced the creation of a contingency plan.
The entity presented a document that sets out the actions that will be implemented to address the possible risks that arise from heavy downpours in the city and their consequences.
According to the aforementioned document, every 15 days the events addressed within the contingency plan will be followed up and the strengths and weaknesses presented with an improvement plan will be discussed. The leaders of each relief agency are summoned to these spaces and, in the case of the Medellín Fire Department, the deputy commander on duty will attend.
Likewise, the contingency plan specifies institutional capacities for the purpose of having an inventory of the resources available at the time of an incident during this rainy season: specialized vehicles (backhoe loaders, skid steer loaders, tippers, cranes, ambulances, tank trucks, among others), availability of specialized personnel by workday and weekends, teams by response groups and relief agencies.
The levels of response to each emergency are determined by the capacity of municipal agencies. In this regard, within the Municipal Emergency Response Strategy, level 1 refers to the installed capacity of the municipality to respond to events of low complexity and level 2 reflects the operational limit of institutional capacity.
On the other hand, levels 3 and 4 correspond to levels where there is not the necessary operational capacity to control the incident and the departmental (Dagran) and national (Ungrd) levels must be used to solve it.
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