A preliminary overview by the USGS
Click here to start slide show

(Slide show consists of a series of 42 photographs, maps, satellite images, and a table of rainfall data. Photographs show landslides, flash-flood deposits, damaged roads, houses, apartment buildings, industrial facilities, marina)

Debris flow damage to apartment building in Caraballeda, Vargas state, Venezuela, January 19, 2000.

For more information contact:

• Matthew C. Larsen, U.S. Geological Survey, mclarsen@usgs.gov.
  
  
• Home Page for Matthew C. Larsen: http://pr.water.usgs.gov/public/dc/

Related links:

• Venezuela OFDA Fact Sheets: USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
  
  
• FLASH FLOOD LABORATORY at Colorado State University
  
  
• University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology Education and Training (COMET)

Bibliography:

• Larsen, M.C., Vásquez Conde, M.T., and Clark, R.A., 2001, Flash-flood related hazards: landslides, with examples from the December, 1999 disaster in Venezuela in E. Gruntfest and J. Handmer, eds., Coping with Flash floods, Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 259-275.
  
  
• Larsen, M.C., Wieczorek, G.F., Eaton, L.S., Morgan, B.A., Torres-Sierra, H., 2001,
  Natural Hazards on Alluvial Fans: the Venezuela debris-flow and flash-flood disaster: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet, FS 103-01, 4 p. (Online versions: English, Español)
  
  
• Larsen, M.C., Wieczorek, G. F., Eaton, L.S., and Torres-Sierra, H., 2001, The rainfall-triggered landslide and flash-flood disaster in northernVenezuela, December 1999: Proceedings of the Seventh Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference, March 25 through 29, 2001, Reno, NV, p. IV-9 to IV-16
  
  
• Larsen, M.C., Wieczorek, G. F., Eaton, L.S., and Torres-Sierra, H., 2001, Natural hazards on alluvial fans: the debris flow and flash flood disaster of December 1999, Vargas state, Venezuela: in W.F. Sylva (ed.), Proceedings of the Sixth Caribbean Islands Water Resources Congress, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, February 22 and 23, 2001, unpaginated CD
  
  
• Wieczorek, G.F., Larsen, M.C., Eaton, L.S., Morgan, B.A. and Blair, J. L., 2002, Debris-flow and flooding deposits in coastal Venezuela associated with the storm of December 14-16, 1999: U.S. Geological Survey, Geologic Investigation Series Map I-2772.
  
  
• Wieczorek, G.F., Larsen, M.C., Eaton, L.S., Morgan, B.A. and Blair, J.L., 2001, Debris-flow and flooding hazards caused by the December 1999 storm in coastal Venezuela, U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 01-144, 40p., 3 tables, 2 appendices, 3 plates, 1 CD. (Online version)

• Caribbean District Home Page