The heavy rains which have fallen on a large part of Chile since Wednesday have left one dead and more than 3,000 affected, according to a latest report on Thursday from the authorities, according to which the storm is now heading towards Argentina.
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The intense rains accompanied by violent winds left 3,297 victims, most of them in the south of the country, according to the latest bulletin from the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred).
In a first report, released in the morning, the organization reported 4,304 victims and one death following the “fall of a public lighting pole” in the town of Linares, in the south. from the country.
AFP
After a little more than 24 hours of rain, “the worst of the frontal system in the regions of Coquimbo, Metropolitana, Valparaiso and O’Higgins has passed,” announced Interior Undersecretary Manuel Monsalve, adding that the front was now heading towards Argentina.
“Eighty percent of this frontal system has already left Chile and is in Argentine territory,” he added. Therefore, he said, weather alerts have been lifted.
The highest level of warning to the population (climate alarm) was triggered on Wednesday due to unusually strong rains and winds in six of the country’s 16 regions: Coquimbo, in the north, Valparaiso and Metropolitana, in the center, O’Higgins , Ñuble and Biobio, to the south.
2,000 houses
Interior Minister Carolina Toha announced the state of “catastrophe” in five of these six regions in order to facilitate emergency aid, before traveling to the town of Curanilahue, 600 km south of Santiago , the most affected due to the overflow of two rivers.
Some 2,000 houses were affected by the floods in the area, where the minister visited reception centers for disaster victims.
AFP
“We need boats to evacuate people,” assured national television a resident of Curanilahue where in the last few hours some 350 mm of water fell, more than in the whole of 2023.
The front was accompanied by an “atmospheric river,” a narrow band in the atmosphere that carries huge amounts of moisture suitable for precipitation, said the weather service, which ranked the intensity of the phenomenon between four and five on a scale of five.
In Santiago, in the Metropolitana region, there has not been an alert of this level for two decades, according to authorities. The center of the country has been suffering from a serious drought for around fifteen years.
Some 14 million people live in the five regions placed in a state of “catastrophe” out of the 16 in the country of 20 million inhabitants.
The authorities have decreed the total suspension of classes in schools in the capital and the four other affected regions of the country, and asked the population to limit travel.
In the town of Viña del Mar, 110 km from Santiago, the authorities are on alert over the risk of collapse of a 12-story building with 200 apartments, in the Reñaca sector. Rain over the weekend caused a sinkhole 15 meters wide and 30 meters deep under the building.
