Fellow TWListees, Venezuela has suffered one of the worse natural disasters ever this past week. The central coastal area in front of the city of Caracas was hit with rains for 19 days. In that time they received the same amount of rain they get during the whole year. The resulting massive mud slides killed an estimated 10,000-15,000 and left 250,000+ homeless. They are still trying to evacuate the last of the survivors from the area. The rains also affected the coastal regions to the east including the areas of Higuerote and Rio Chico. The eastern area had a dam burst which flooded the whole region killing an untold number and leaving many more homeless. The Morrocoy area (west of Caracas) lost all its bridges and has been cut off from the rest of Venezuela. The peninsula of Paraguana has also been cut off when the one road connecting the peninsula with the rest of the country disappeared. I bring this to the attention of the TWList since I know there are a number of TWListees planning to cruise to Venezuela. Virtually all the marinas in the coastal area from Morrocoy all the way east to Higuerote are out of order. There is no food, fuel, water or transportation available at this time in these areas. When the areas will be back in operation is unknown. It is estimated that the international airport, located on the coast north of Caracas, will be out of service for the commercial carriers for at least 1 month. As one can imagine, the stench from the decomposing bodies and other debrisall along the coastline is overwhelming . There is food, fuel and water available in Puerto Cabello (located between Caracas and Morrocoy), which was not hit by these mud slides. There are no problems with the far eastern areas or marinas around Puerto La Cruz or the island of Margarita. Although these two areas were also hit by the rains, the damage has been less severe and they are quickly returning to normal. The islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao have also been hit hard by the rains but luckily suffered no serious problems. The snowbirds that came for a week of sun and surf have had to hold up at their hotels. Regards, Steve Steven G. Leonard M/V Sin Limite- currently inaccessible Morrocoy, Venezuela