Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks during an emergency cabinet meeting due to heavy rains in Caracas November 29, 2010. Heavy rains in the past few days have caused floods and landslides in the slums of Caracas forcing the evacuation of hundreds of families, according to the local media. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
CARACAS, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Venezuelan government Monday declared a state of emergency for the Falcon State which was hit by rains last week.
The decree "aims to deploy all the assets needed to provide support in terms of logistics and preventative health measures," Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua told the state-run Venezuelan News Agency (AVN) after meeting government ministers and senior officials.
Some 8,000 rescuers are already in the coastal state to tackle the emergency, officials said.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami said on Sunday that 23 of the 25 cities in the state had suffered some damage and 15 cities could no longer be reached by road.
Government sources said that at least 24,000 of 750,000 people in the Falcon State had lost their homes due to the rains.
Torrential rains struck northern Venezuela last week, interrupting the production in two of the three refineries in the Paraguana Refining Center, which processes almost half of Venezuela's crude oil.
Schools and public transport have been closed in the state.
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