Unseasonal heavy rains and severe flooding across northern Colombia have created a full-blown humanitarian crisis, displacing hundreds of thousands, destroying homes and farmland, and pushing local infrastructure and health systems to breaking point.
The disaster has hit hardest in the department of Córdoba, where officials say 156,000 people have been affected and 80% of the territory remains underwater following rainfall that broke historical records for February, traditionally one of the region’s driest months.
“In one day we received the amount of rain expected for an entire month,” Ghisliane Echeverry, director of the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam), told ministers during a government emergency council meeting.
The flooding has spread across multiple departments, including Sucre, Magdalena, La Guajira, Chocó and Antioquia, but Córdoba — a key agricultural and cattle-raising hub — has borne the brunt of the devastation.
“This is much more serious than even the most pessimistic scenarios we expected,” Carlos Carrillo, director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), said. “We are facing a severe climate crisis that has overwhelmed traditional coping mechanisms.”
Displacement and extensive damage
Preliminary government assessments report at least 14 confirmed deaths linked to flooding and landslides, while thousands of families have been forced into temporary shelters as floodwaters inundate entire neighborhoods.
In Córdoba’s rural areas, officials estimate that around 157,000 hectares of agricultural land are submerged, affecting crops such as plantain, yucca and watermelon as well as commercial monocultures like African palm. Livestock losses are mounting, with local authorities reporting that more than 5,500 animals have been affected.
“We have 1,700 homes already destroyed and 4,000 more uninhabitable,” Carrillo said, though he cautioned that final figures are expected to change once waters recede and damage is fully assessed.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said more than 27,000 families have been impacted by flooding across the Caribbean departments, with thousands more indirectly affected as access roads and bridges have been reduced to rubble.
Public health officials warn that overcrowded shelters are becoming hotspots for disease, exacerbated by lack of access to clean water, sanitation and essential medical care.
“We are seeing extreme levels of waterborne and respiratory illnesses among displaced families,” said a health official in Montería, the capital of Córdoba. “The combination of stagnant water, cramped conditions and limited resources is a ticking time bomb.”
Essential supplies including food, mattresses and personal hygiene products are in critically short supply in many shelters, officials said.
Cold front and climate pressures
Meteorologists have attributed the extreme rainfall to an atypical cold front entering from the Caribbean, which has pushed precipitation far above normal levels. Rainfall in some areas has been measured at more than 64% above average for January and February.
“The water levels we are witnessing have never been recorded in February,” Carrillo said. Ideam has maintained high-level yellow and red alerts for at least 16 departments as flooding and landslide risks persist.
Typically dry early months of the year have instead seen consistent rains, and meteorologists warn that March and April could bring the usual seasonal rains, compounding the already dire situation.
Local officials across affected regions reported severe disruptions to vital road networks, bridges and public services, isolating some communities entirely. In the Urabá Antioqueño in western Antioquia, authorities said more than 9,000 families were left displaced in 13 municipalities that declared calamity.
Despite the scale of the disaster, the national government has not formally declared an economic emergency, a move that would unlock additional disaster funds and expedite aid. President Gustavo Petro, who convened a council of ministers in Montería, has signaled that such a declaration is under consideration.
“The magnitude of these floods demands a national response,” one government official said. “We are mobilizing resources but the scale of the crisis is beyond anything we normally plan for.”
The response has also brought renewed scrutiny to long-standing water management challenges in the region. Carrillo and other government officials have criticized decades-old hydraulic works, including reservoirs and levees, for altering natural water flows and potentially exacerbating flooding.
President Petro echoed these concerns on social media, singling out infrastructure such as the Urrá hydroelectric reservoir — built in the 1990s — as part of the region’s broader hydrological challenges.
“These reservoirs were not designed to manage excess water but to drain lands and disrupt natural flow patterns,” Petro wrote, arguing that such interventions may have contributed to current conditions.
Communities struggle amid uncertainty
In two coastal departments – La Guajira and Magdalena – continuous rainfall has caused streams to overflow and paralyzed mobility, while in the colonial port city of Santa Marta, strong winds and currents drove a cargo vessel ashore, highlighting the intensity of the storms.
For residents in isolated rural towns, the toll is deeply personal. Entire families have lost homes and livelihoods, and many are now waiting for relief that has been slow to reach remote areas.
“We’ve never seen water this high,” said a farmer in northern Córdoba. “We are afraid of what comes next — we don’t know how we will recover.”
With rains expected to continue over the coming weeks, authorities and humanitarian organizations warn that the full scale of the disaster may not be known for months, and that recovery will require sustained national and international support.
