Quibdó, Colombia— The Atrato River did not wait. After days of rain over the Pacific slope, it rose fast on Tuesday and broke its banks across Chocó. Water filled wooden houses on stilts. Families left. Two people were hurt.
Radio Nacional de Colombia said flooding hit several municipalities including Medio Atrato and Lloró, among the wettest places on earth. The river gauge at Quibdó passed the red threshold at dawn. Tributaries followed. Low fields turned into lakes.
Officials said at least 60 families were displaced in three riverside settlements. Boats became ambulances. Two residents suffered injuries while trying to move belongings through fast water. One fell from a canoe. The other was hit by floating timber.
"The water came at night, black and fast," a community leader in Bete said over a crackling radio link. "We shouted to get children onto the second floor. The river took chickens, took the latrines." His house now stands in a meter of water.
Chocó's risk management office opened temporary shelters in schools on higher ground. Delivery of aid is hard. Roads are dirt tracks that turn to mud. Most transport is by river, but the river itself is the danger.
The department is 90 percent rainforest and river. Deforestation for mining and logging upstream makes floods sharper. Housing sits where it has always sat, on floodplains, because there is no other flat land. Warnings arrive late and power is patchy.
The Institute of Hydrology said more rain is forecast for the Pacific coast through Thursday as a trough lingers. Soils are saturated. The Atrato basin remains on red alert. More evacuations are likely.
The government said it is sending food kits and plastic sheeting by helicopter when weather allows. Those kits often arrive days late.
Tonight families sleep on school desks. The river is still high. The rain has not stopped.
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