(Santiago de Chile) The heavy rains which have fallen on a large part of Chile since Wednesday have left one dead and more than 3,000 injured, according to a latest report on Thursday from the authorities, according to which the storm is now heading towards Argentina.
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 of country.
After just over 24 hours of rain, “the worst of the frontal system in the Coquimbo, Metropolitana, Valparaiso and O’Higgins regions has passed,” Interior Undersecretary Manuel Monsalve announced, 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, the weather warnings have been lifted.
The highest level of public warning (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.
Interior Minister Carolina Toha declared a state of “catastrophe” in five of the six regions to facilitate emergency aid, before heading to the city of Curanilahue, 600 km south of Santiago, the worst affected due to the overflowing of two rivers.
Some 2,000 homes were affected by flooding in the area, where the minister visited reception centers for disaster victims.
“We need boats to evacuate people,” assured on 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 suffered 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 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, authorities are on alert for the risk of collapse of a 12-story building with 200 apartments in the Reñaca sector. Weekend rains caused a sinkhole 50 feet wide and 100 feet deep beneath the building.
