Area should be `holy ground'

An Irish priest serving in the Venezualan capital Caracas said last night that an area to the west of the city, where an estimated 25,000 people died as a result of weekend floods, is to be designated "holy ground". Such is the loss of life there that no further effort is to be made to locate bodies, he said.

Father Thomas Mulcahy, who is with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in the Propatria slum area of Caracas, also said between 40,000 and 60,000 people displaced by the floods were staying in churches, schools, and wherever they could get shelter, in Caracas.

He said the area hardest hit near the city was the town of La Guaire and some smaller villages, between 10 and 15 kilometres west of Caracas. La Guaire had a population of "120-130,000".

Rain had been continuous there in December, but was particularly bad on the 12th, 13th, 14th, and for 24 hours on the 15th. Last Saturday part of Mount Avila, which dominates Caracas, slid into La Guaire.

Father Mulcahy said a young man who was there said it was "as if the mountain split in two." Two Irish Sisters of Charity live in La Guaire. Both "Sister Bernadette and Sister Teresa" were safe Father Mulcahy said. He did not know their surnames, but they were from the North. Currently they and 70 other people were living on the second floor of a building, as its ground floor was covered in mud.

Nuns from Mother Teresa's order, who work just 400 yards from the Irish nuns, had been unable to leave because of the number of bodies strewn on the street, he said.

Father Mulcahy also said other Irish people he knew in Caracas were safe. These included his colleague Father John McCarthy from Co Limerick, Mr Gerry O'Sullivan, from Cork and director of Invicapi, a state agency for the unemployed, Mr O'Sullivan's wife and two daughters, and Father James Moore a diocesan priest from Carlow.

Eight of Venezuala's 30 states had been badly hit by the floods, particularly the state of Falcon, where the extent of damage remained unknown because of bad communications and the isolation of the population, Father Mulcahy said.

He praised the international relief effort, particularly from the US, Mexico, Cuba, and Iran.

Father Mulcahy is from near Hospital in Co Limerick and has been in Venezuela for 28 years.