Venezuela's National Emergency Commission, the organisation responsible for co-ordinating volunteer rescue efforts after the nation's worst disaster of the century, yesterday issued an urgent appeal for more volunteers, as rescue efforts tailed off over the Christmas period.
The nation's army and police have filled the gap. The first group of Concern volunteers arrived from Ireland on St Stephen's Day, to help with reconstruction.
The parallel army and civilian rescue efforts have led to brushes between rival army and civilian authorities, with Mr Antonio Laya, governor of Vargas state, the coastal strip worst-affected by the mudslides, claiming he was detained and struck by an army colonel after a dispute over the appropriate destination of donated supplies.
The governor retracted his accusation yesterday, saying the army was "doing a first-class job" in his area but insisted that army troops co-ordinate tasks through civilian authorities.
President Hugo Chavez announced that the relief plan was still in phase one, that of rescue and recovery of victims and their placement in temporary refugee centres.
Phase two began yesterday, directed at repairing lost infrastructure, principally roads and water supply.
The third phase is a long-term reconstruction plan to build houses and provide jobs for all 400,000 flood victims, a process expected to take far longer.
"It will take 10 years for Vargas state to recover from this disaster," commented Gen. Lucas Rincon, who was yesterday appointed chief commander of the relief effort.
"The important thing is that we do not permit people to build houses of any kind in these areas" Mr Chavez said, referring to at least 38 districts classified as "highly dangerous" due to their proximity to low riverbanks or steep ravines.
He also offered his condolences to the Cuban people yesterday after all 22 passengers aboard a Cuban aircraft lost their lives on Saturday when it ploughed into a mountainside 10 miles from Valencia airport, 100 miles west of Caracas.
Venezuela's greatest disaster this century has provoked a major national debate on sustainable urban planning, with Mr Chavez planning to relocate hundreds of thousands of people to fertile lands in the country's southern great plains and eastern Amazon jungle.
His radical overhaul of state institutions also restarted yesterday when the nation's old Supreme Court gave way to the Supreme Tribunal of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, now the maximum judicial authority in the country.
The old Supreme Court judges were obliged to hand in their notice as part of sweeping changes arising from the approval of a new constitution on December 15th, just as torrential rains turned a disaster into a holocaust.
In another development, the National Identification Office had mile-long queues outside its central office in Caracas yesterday, as thousands of citizens anxiously awaited fresh ID cards, the first step towards recovering their lost identity, as the floods swept away homes and lives but also property deeds, birth certificates and other papers.