Sixteen people, including three children, are known to have died, and 34 more to have been injured, in a landslide that engulphed six houses in the town of Dosquebradas in the Risaralda Department of Colombia on Tuesday 8 February 2022. The incident happened at about 6.25 am local time, following more than 12 hours of heavy overnight rains, which is reported to have caused the swelling of a stream, which then undermined the base of a steep scarp, causing it to collapse. Landslides
are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water
pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to
flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by
heavy rainfall. A number of other homes in the area have been evacuated to the danger of further incidents.
Risaralda Department has a wet tropical climate with a double monsoon, which peaks in April and October. Such a double Monsoon Season is common close to the equator, where the Sun is highest overhead around the equinoxes and lowest on the horizons around the solstices, making the solstices the coolest part of the year and the equinoxes the hottest. February would generally be considered one of the drier months of the year, but rainstorms can happen at any time, and the area had been hit by previous landslips, suggesting that the slope was not particularly stable.
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