Video: Gustavo Petro recalls that in 2018 he predicted the climate emergency that plagues Cartagena

A harrowing day of rain and floods has 70% of Cartagena under water. According to the balance delivered on the night of Saturday, November 14, by the mayor of the capital of Bolívar, William Dau Chamat, about 155,000 residents were affected by the downpours.

The climate emergency, which has no close precedent in the heroic world, has attracted attention for its harshness in one of the most important cities in the country. This Sunday, the followers of the senator and former presidential candidate, Gustavo Petro, published a video of the 2018 presidential campaign where the politician affirms, with his own name, that Cartagena and Miami “are the cities in America most vulnerable to climate change.”

In his speech, Petro affirms that this is because in Cartagena the sea, the swamp and the low and unstable lands come together. “Altogether, it is a city that is surrounded by water”, summed up on stage.

In addition, Petro pointed out that this geographical combination that jumps out is even more dangerous because “the winter seasons will be increasingly intensive.”

In the end, the senator and candidate at that time, warned about the most vulnerable population in Cartagena, of which he said “they live at the highest risk for their lives. It is only a decade before the sea rises higher and the swamp rises higher ”.

Petro himself referred to the video.

The current situation of La Heróica

The water, which in some places reached up to the neck of the inhabitants of the ‘heroica’, directly affected 31,550 families. According to Mayor Dau, 33 neighborhoods were flooded, 22 schools were affected and there were dozens of fallen trees. There were also 14 landslides in the city and, in rural areas, there were losses of between 50 and 100 hectares of crops.

What worries William Dau and the people of Cartagena the most, in addition to the damage caused by Iota, are the heavy rains that could aggravate the situation. “It would be a human tragedy,” said the mayor.

The Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam) foresees that the storm will become a hurricane between the night of November 15 and the early morning of November 16, a fact that would especially affect the islands of San Andrés and Providencia, but also the capital of Bolívar and the northern departments of the country; even those in the central region.

Due to the passage of Iota in the Caribbean, Mayor Dau declared the city in public calamity, which is why it will be able to hire specialized teams for risk mitigation and will have the direct support of the National Government, which, as announced by President Iván Duke, It will deploy units of the Public Force to support the victims.

“From the early hours, all the teams in all the Mayor’s offices are ready to take action to mitigate the effects. Today we will be decreeing a calamity due to heavy rains and with that we can immediately hire teams to mitigate the effects “Dau said on the morning of November 14, prior to the signing of the decree.

Among the emergency measures, the establishment of not one, but three Unified Command Posts stands out, as well as the adaptation of the Fighting Coliseum as a temporary shelter for the victims.

Before the emergency, William Dau requested the collaboration in money to attend the needs of the victims in a Savings account of Banco de Occidente 830-12551-4, in the name of the Tourist and Cultural District of Cartagena de Indias.