South America swept by floods
CONCORDIA, ARGENTINA • Widespread flooding forced tens of thousands of people in South America to take refuge in shelters on Monday, as they endured heat, bugs and dirty running water because of contaminated sewer lines.
The floods were caused by heavy rains and bulging rivers over the last several days and come at the beginning of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer months. That means evacuees were also dealing with heat, humidity, mosquitoes and snakes that thrive in swamp-like conditions.
Concordia, about 425 kilometres north of Buenos Aires, was among places that were particularly hard hit. Some houses had water nearly up to the roofs, and people made their way around town in canoes.
“The water is contaminated and bugs are everywhere,” said Josefina Monson, a 33- yearold who has been in the shelter with her husband and young daughters since Christmas Eve. “I’m not sure when we’ll be able to go home.”
At least 20,000 have been evacuated in Argentina. Neighbouring Paraguay has been hardest hit, with 144,000 evacuated, mostly in areas bordering the Paraguay River. Several thousand have also been evacuated in Uruguay and southern Brazil.
The floods have been responsible for at least eight deaths: six in Paraguay and two in Uruguay. Causes of death have ranged from falling trees to electrocution.
“I can only get within two blocks of my house,” said Alejandra Peritas, a 43- year- old in Concordio who took her two children to a shelter. “I can only see the roof. The rest is covered in water.”
In the U. S., the storm system that spawned tornadoes in Texas over the weekend brought winter storm woes to the Midwest on Monday, worsening flooding already blamed for more than a dozen deaths and prompting hundreds of flight cancellations. At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in t he t ornadoes t hat swept through the Dallas area Saturday and caused substantial damage.
That, plus the flooding in Missouri and Illinois, was the latest in a succession of severe weather events across the U. S. that have led to at least 45 deaths in less than a week. A range of precipitation hit the country’s midsection Monday, including heavy snow, ice and blustery winds in parts of 11 states and heavy rain in already- waterlogged parts of Missouri and Arkansas.
The system caused nearly 900 flights to be cancelled — more than a third of which were at Chicago’s two main airports — and 500 to be delayed, according to flight- tracking service FlightAware. Authorities in Georgia said they recovered the body of a man whose car was swept away when floodwaters overtook it.