Venezuela ordered this Tuesday to suspend classes at all levels of educationn Wednesday and Thursday before arrival of a tropical cyclone in the next few hours, which will also lead to restricting general and private flights.
(You may be interested in: Alert in the Colombian Caribbean due to the arrival of ‘Bonnie’)
“We are going to suspend classes throughout the national territory, in the 23 states plus Caracas,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said through the state channel VTV, after meeting with his government team and evaluating the measures before the arrival of the cyclone.
(See here: Alert for the arrival of Hurricane Bonnie in Colombia, the Caribbean and the US.)
Schools will be closed for the next two days, reported the president and reiterated the “flight restriction”. “All airports will have their special measures,” Maduro continued.
The National Institute of Civil Aeronautics (INAC) indicated in a statement that it restricts “air operations of general and private aviation”, without going into details. Meteorological authorities expect the cyclone to reach the country around 2 pm local time on Wednesday and affect Caracas and nine other coastal states.
The measures are also added to the prohibition of the departure of boats, the closure of beaches and some roads “with some type of risk” and in a “preventive” manner, according to Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.
Maduro ordered the activation of shelters in all the governorates of the states with potential risk and the reinforcement of the deployment of firefighters and Civil Protection.
According to the authorities, heavy rains and winds that can exceed 60 kilometers per hour are expected, so they recommended that the population secure doors, windows and roofs.
The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC for its acronym in English) reported on Monday the formation of a “potential” tropical cyclone, Bonnie, with an impact on the Caribbean, Venezuela and northern Colombia.
Some 16,000 security personnel are deployed in Venezuela as a preventive measure after activating “the alert system,” said Interior Minister Admiral Remigio Ceballos.
“We are going to have heavy rains and prolonged rains that are going to generate, in some cases, floods,” warned Ceballos, who added that the government has reserves of food, water and supplies available to care for the affected population.
This year the rains have caused considerable damage in several states of
Venezuela, a situation that the authorities attribute to the incidence of the climatic phenomenon La Niña.
AFP
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