Heavy rains and flooding: Colombia's Katrina?

To inspect his cattle ranch, German Guerrero donned a surgical face mask, grabbed a pair of oars and jumped into a fiberglass boat.

Overland travel was no longer an option. Even breathing was difficult. Last month, a dike broke along the Bogota River and fetid black water, contaminated with raw sewage and industrial waste, engulfed Guerrero’s farm.

Guerrero and his farm hands spent most of their time rowing so their outboard motor wouldn’t snag on the hedges and barbed-wire fences just below the water's surface. Guerrero saved most of his cattle but wanted to find out what happened to his house, his milking machines and his 14 pet cats.
 
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