Thousands of people have been affected by the intense torrential rains that have hit the central region of Chile since Tuesday, and that since the early hours of this Thursday (06/13/2024) have also hit Santiago de Chile, the capital of the country, where already have caused flood evictions, power outages and traffic problems.
One of the most dramatic situations is experienced on the banks of the Curanilahue River, in the Biobío region, where more than 5,000 people have been forced to abandon their homes due to the overflowing waters, after the total fell in a few hours. of rain that normally falls in a year. In the same region, another 400 families also had to flee their homes due to the overflowing of another of the hundreds of rivers that exist in the central regions of Chile.
Further north, in Maule, a man died during the early hours of the morning after being hit by an electricity pole that was defeated by the wind, which in some areas of the country is exceeding 80 kilometers per hour. In Santiago, meanwhile, the large avenues have been transformed into torrents, large pockets of water have accumulated in parks and gardens while in irregular towns or camps, mudflats and landslides have left dozens of people without shelter in their homes. precarious homes.
They declared a “state of catastrophe”
The Chilean Meteorological Directorate issued an unusual “climate alarm”: the highest level of warning to the population due to the intense rainfall and winds of the last 48 hours. The emergency covers 14 of the 20 million Chileans who live in five of the country’s 16 regions: Coquimbo (north), Valparaíso and Metropolitana (center) and O’Higgins, Ñuble and Biobío (center-south).
“These rains are going to continue very strongly, we regret the first death,” said President Gabriel Boric, in a message from Sweden, where he is on an official visit. The Minister of the Interior and Vice President of Chile, Carolina Tohá, traveled to Curanilahue to assess the damage. Before boarding the plane, she reported that to speed up the deployment of resources, a state of “catastrophe” was declared in the five regions of the country most affected by the rains.
The cold front is accompanied “by an atmospheric river” categorized between 4-5 on a scale of maximum five, due to the amount of water vapor available, which “considerably increases the amount of expected precipitation,” according to the Meteorological Directorate. The phenomenon hits an area of Chile that has suffered an intense drought for fifteen years.
DZC (EFE, AFP)
