Monday, 15 January 2001
In the lapse 14-17 December 1999 occurred the main
portion of a disastrous rainfall-runoff event that hit the
northern central coast of Venezuela with the dead
of thousand of persons and the destruction of hundreds
of homes. The local quantitative precipitation forecasting
was absent and the population had no training on that
kind of contingency. The main part of the rain gauge
network was inoperative by those days but an amount
of 911 mm in 3 day was reported. About 800 millions
dollars are necessary to overpass physical damages but
psychological and social impacts are not quantified.
The damages are comparable with those of the Galveston
Hurricane. The paper presents details on the phenomenon
classified as cold front trough enhanced by mountain effect
and divergence aloft.
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