Venezuela continues to struggle to cope with its worst natural catastrophe this century as workers continue to count the dead, the injured, the missing and the homeless.
Flood survivors walked delicately yesterday over third-storey roof tops buried under mud, disobeying repeated government requests to stay away from collapsed neighbourhoods. Flood victims insisted on guarding the remains of their homes and searching for relatives among the debris.
The smell of decomposing corpses is a grim reminder that large areas of Vargas state, the most affected area, are threatened with contagious diseases. Shantytown dwellers built precarious bridges out of zinc roofing and floating furniture to cross the rivers which now flow in and around their former homes.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Jose Vicente Rangel, acknowledged that the death toll may be as high as 10,000 "or even far higher". Unofficial estimates calculated the dead at several times that figure.
President Hugo Chavez spoke to the nation for the fifth successive night. He announced sites for the location of 15,000 new homes in 26 states across the country, speeding up an ambitious plan to clear poor urban districts.
The atmosphere in Caracas city centre was tense early yesterday morning as police and troops brandished swords and rifles to prevent looting. Mr Chavez banned the sale of alcohol but has resisted calls to impose martial law across affected areas, contrary to what other military sources told this reporter yesterday. Hundreds of containers with luxury goods in Vargas port have been systematically looted, at times with the help of the army. "Just as well Chavez is in power," said one looter as he fled into the back streets of La Guaria neighbourhood carrying a fridge on his back. "If it was any other president, we would all have been shot dead by now."
One army lieutenant looking on helplessly. "We are tired, we have no electricity and we are hungry, and on top of that, are we expected to deal with looters?"
The issue of using the army to control possible looting is particularly sensitive in Caracas where troops killed an estimated 1,000 civilians in February 1989 after the introduction of an economic austerity package led to widespread looting.
Mr Chavez, then an army paratrooper, organised a dissident army group which rejected the army's repressive role. This began the political movement which took him to the presidency in December 1998.