Rog just showed me his detailed map of Caracas and the surrounding area. He said it is awesome terrain. There is a huge mtn range between the city and the ocean. Standing on the street in Caracas, one looks straight up to the top of Mt. Avila, all the way to 10,000 feet, from sea level.

It is on the almost vertical slopes of that, on the city side and ocean side that so many poor built their shacks and little towns which now no longer exist. Caracas was built there partly for the protection the mountains afforded from pirates.

The airport north of there and right on the ocean, where rescues are coming from and where so many rescued are being taken, is available, by land, only by a very long tunnel, from Caracas, around the north end of the mtn.

Very tough conditions and such a tragedy.

kat