The typical winter rains fueled unusually strong El Ni�o weather pattern have lashed Colombia’ Caribbean coast over the past month leaving hundreds dead, thousands homeless and left the much of the South American country’s infrastructure crippled.
The Colombian branch of the Red Cross set the death toll at 281 and estimate that a total of 2.2 million people in the country have so far been affected by the rains, floods and landslides. The Colombian government puts the damage estimate at more than $5.2 billion to date.