At least four dead, 19 missing as floods hit central Chile
4m left without drinking water after rainstorms, landslides contaminated a major river
At least four people are dead and 19 others missing after heavy rains struck Chile over the weekend during the country’s usually dry summer months, causing mudslides and water outages in the South American nation, officials said on Sunday.
The rains had isolated 373 people, the Onemi emergency service said.
The drinking-water supply for over a million households in Santiago had been affected, and Aguas Andinas, the company that provides water to the capital, said rains were making repairs difficult.
“Emergency teams are working on the ground to connect with isolated persons and re-establish the water supply wherever possible,” Chilean President Michelle Bachelet wrote on Twitter.
In the O’Higgins region, south of Santiago, a 12-year-old girl was killed when a landslide swept away the car in which she was travelling.
In the San Jose de Maipo valley, directly above the city, emergency crews had to clear the roads of debris before residents could evacuate to lower, less mountainous ground.
It was the second major flooding event to hit central Chile in the past year. Last April, heavy rains battered the San Jose de Maipo valley, killing one and shutting production at some of the largest copper mines in the world.
Rainstorms and landslides contaminated a major river, forcing authorities to cut off drinking water to four million people in the capital, authorities said.
The torrential rain that started Saturday prompted mudslides and rubble to surge into the Maipo river, which supplies most homes in the capital.
“We are talking about 1.45 million homes that are going to be affected by the cutting off of the water supply, which will be total or partial in 30 districts,” of Santiago, the region’s governor Claudi o Orrego told a news conference.
He said the cut would therefore affect more than 60 per cent of the city’s 6.5 millionstrong population — about 3.9 million people.