Floods deluge Suriname villages

May is the beginning of the rainy season in Suriname but government forecaster Cor Becker said the amount of rainfall measured in Suriname during the past week was extremely rare. About 175 villages close to the Suriname and Marowijne rivers in southeastern and central Suriname are worst affected due to floods. About 25,000 people mostly Maroons, descendants of African slaves, fled their thatched-hut houses for higher ground. President Ronald Venetiaan has declared the area in the remote lowlands a disaster zone. Various organizations and individuals in Suriname and the Netherlands have gathered together to help the victims.






Military assistance (helicopters for transportation) from neighbor countries and the Netherland are in Suriname at the moment. Reporters and military forces are staying in hotel Torarica. On May 20, 2006 a benefit concert & telethon was organized in Suriname called “Win a Wan” which collected SRD 250.000,-- in one night. The N.V. Hotelmaatschappij Torarica donated SRD 20.000,-- through the Surinamese Red Cross organization.