Bolivia reported this Thursday that the death toll has risen to 42, with 33,280 families affected or displaced across nine departments due to the rains and floods. President Luis Arce flew over the affected areas of the Amazonian region of Pando, one of the hardest hit. The deputy minister of Civil Defense, Juan Carlos Calvimontes, said 536 homes were damaged nationwide and 835 residences were completely destroyed. Two people remain missing, and 807 have been evacuated.
The departments most impacted by the rainfall include La Paz, where 175 communities and 18,484 families have been affected, and 187 homes suffer some form of damage. Central Cochabamba and the highland altiplano area of Potosí are also affected. The deputy minister emphasized that when looking at the severity of the flooding, the Amazonian department of Pando is the most affected. The Acre River has overflowed, reaching a record water level of 15.88 meters. Although the level has begun to decline, authorities anticipate another surge in the coming days.
Calvimontes noted that the response in Pando has been effective. There are nine shelters housing 277 families, while another 902 people have been relocated to alternate housing with relatives. In total, 1,179 families in that department are considered affected. A team of 35 health professionals was deployed to the impacted sites, delivering 1,027 medical consultations. Additionally, 847 military personnel arrived to support operations, which included 199 actions, 16 flood patrols, 181 ground deployments, and two aerial reconnaissance missions.
In the same period, President Arce conducted an overflight of the affected areas in Pando, a region that was declared a municipal disaster on Wednesday. He pledged that the national government would not abandon the affected families and that, in coordination with local authorities, a Reconstruction Plan would be implemented to benefit those who suffered losses.
The rainy season in Bolivia typically begins in November and runs through March, with the highest intensity occurring in January and February. To date, 13 municipalities have proclaimed disasters at the municipal level, and nine are in a state of emergency.