LA GUAIRA, Venezuela -- Refugees streamed in by the thousands from the areas hardest hit by massive floods and mudslides, while health officials painted a worsening picture in the aftermath of Venezuela's worst natural disaster this century.
Military helicopters filled the skies above the international airport in La Guaira on Monday, dropping off survivors and quickly taking off in search of more.National civil defense chief Angel Vargas told The Associated Press that 40,000 people had been evacuated from devastated areas hit by torrential rains last week and predicted 15,000 more would be transported to safety in the next 48 hours.
Dr. Arturo Contreras, coordinating first aid at the airport's makeshift field hospital, said more serum was needed to treat children suffering from diarrhea caused by dehydration, hunger and drinking contaminated water.
Speaking to reporters at the airport, Defense Minister Gen. Raul Salazar said troops were searching "meter by meter, house by house" for people who might still be alive under mudslides and rubble.
Meanwhile, Gen. Charles Wilhelm, the chief U.S. military commander in Latin America, was flying to Venezuela Monday for a one-day visit to assess the country's humanitarian needs.
Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel said Sunday the estimated death toll had risen to more than 5,000. The second most deadly disaster this century was an earthquake that killed 300 people in 1967.
Another 150,000 are homeless, and at least 6,000 have been reported missing -- many of whom are presumed dead.
Workers at Caracas' cemetery dug 1,500 graves for people buried by a mudslide along the Caribbean coast. Pictures of the dead, with disfigured faces, were posted at the cemetery's entrance. Hundreds of anxious relatives gathered at the gates praying that none of the photographs belonged to a loved one -- and crying when they did.
Some casualty estimates were even higher than 5,000. The El Universal newspaper, the country's main daily, ran a front page article on Sunday citing La Guaira's mayor, Lenin Marcano, as saying he estimated 25,000 dead in the port city.
Early Sunday, Gen. Isaias Baduel, the head of an elite paratroopers' unit leading the rescue effort, said between 500 and 600 bodies had been found in the northern state of Vargas alone. He said the bodies recovered "allow us to make projections that surpass 1,000 dead" in Vargas.
The official coordinating the rescue operation, Vice Justice Minister Vassili Kotoski Flores, said hundreds of bodies were found floating along the coast off Vargas.
It's not clear how many bodies had been recovered overall. Most of the dead remained buried under rubble and mud.
The magnitude of the calamity overwhelmed Venezuela's capacity to respond. Dozens of nations from around the world rushed aid to the South American country. The United States, which gets much of its petroleum from Venezuela, offered two planes and nine helicopters.
The disaster started Wednesday when torrential rains triggered landslides that crashed down from Mount Avila, a mountain separating Caracas from the Caribbean coast, sweeping away large swaths of Venezuela's northern coast.
Many of the dead and wounded were poor people living in shacks made of tin, wood and cinderblock at the foot of Mount Avila. Millions had built homes on the mountainside because they couldn't afford to live anywhere else. For decades, government officials did little to stop them.
President Clinton sent a letter to Chavez expressing his "profound condolences to those who suffered losses," according to a Spanish version of the letter issued by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry.
One flood victim, Marta Iriarte de Salvatierra, 46, said her family's shack was swept away by an avalanche of water, mud and boulders. She said they grabbed what belongings they could and fled to the nearest structure still standing -- a luxury apartment building near the beach.
The family spent two nights in one apartment, amazed by its luxuriousness, and ate the food in the refrigerator. They were rescued Sunday and were waiting to be bused out of the airport to an inland city.