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Argentina: flooding from torrential rains kill 31
Topic Started: 3 Apr 2013, 04:55 PM (79 Views)
Audi-Tek
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Argentina: flooding from torrential rains kill 31.


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Cars and garbage containers lay piled up after flash flooding caused damage overnight in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. According to city officials, at least five people were killed during the heavy rains. (AP Photo/Leonardo Zavattaro, Telam)


BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — At least 25 people were killed by flooding overnight in Argentina's Buenos Aires province, the governor said Wednesday, bringing the overall death toll from days of torrential rains to 31 and leaving large stretches of the provincial capital under water.

Gov. Daniel Scioli said many of the deaths involved people who drowned after trying to take shelter in their cars in Tolosa, an area of the provincial capital of La Plata.

"Such intense rain in so little time has left many people trapped in their cars, in the streets, in some cases electrocuted. We are giving priority to rescuing people who have been stuck in trees or on the roofs of their homes," Scioli told a news conference. La Plata "has never seen anything equal" to this disaster, he added.

The rains also flooded the country's largest refinery, causing a fire that took hours to put out. The refinery has suspended operations as a result, and Argentina's YPF oil company said it has an emergency team evaluating how to get it restarted again.

The rains — almost 16 inches (400 millimeters) in about two hours — hit provincial La Plata after causing widespread flooding and power outages and killing six people in the city of Buenos Aires the day before.

"This is the biggest weather-related disaster in the city's history," Casals said. He said more than 1,500 people had been evacuated, a number sure to grow through the day.

"There's no power in nearly the entire city," Casals said, adding that the water has "wiped out the downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods such as Tolosa, Elvira, Los Hornos, with as much as 2 meters (more than 6 feet) of water, and people are on their roofs."

Many of the evacuees slept in their cars overnight. Transportation and business of all kinds in the city were at a standstill.

YPF said no injuries were caused by the refinery fire, which it blamed on "an extraordinary accumulation of rainwater and power outages in the entire refinery complex."


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skibboy
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4 April 2013

Argentina floods: Mourning declared

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Most of the victims were in the city of La Plata

The government in Argentina has declared three days of national mourning after flash floods killed 54 people.

One of the heaviest storms recorded moved through the province hitting both the capital, Buenos Aires, and the city of La Plata.

At least 48 people were killed in La Plata and six others in Buenos Aires.

The provincial governor Daniel Scioli said La Plata had "never seen anything like it".

More bodies were being found as flood waters receded, he added.

Around 40cm (16in) of rain fell on La Plata in a short period late on Tuesday night and the early hours of Wednesday. Buenos Aires had earlier been hit by more than 15cm of rainfall.

Thousands of people have been moved from their homes.

Residents have described spending nights on rooftops to escape the deluge while the coastguard used boats to help people who were stranded.

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Argentina's president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, visited Tolosa, the worst affected area in La Plata, some 32 miles (52km) south of the capital.

The president's mother was among those moved out of their homes.

She spoke to some of the victims of the floods and promised to send police reinforcements.

"I know there is fear of looting," she said.

Before her arrival, dozens of people had looted a supermarket in La Plata, while others blocked roads demanding greater assistance from the authorities.

Refinery fire

Mr Scioli said that many of those who died in La Plata were drowned or electrocuted after taking shelter in their cars in the suburb of Tolosa.

"We are giving priority to rescuing people who have been stuck in trees or on the roofs of their homes,'' he added.

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The president visited some of the worst affected areas

The city's oil refinery was flooded and then had to close due to a fire.

YPF, the company which runs the facility, said "an extraordinary accumulation of rainwater and power outages in the entire refinery complex" caused the fire.

In Buenos Aires, one of those who died was a worker for the city's underground system who was electrocuted while trying to pump water from a flooded station.

Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri said about 350,000 people had been affected by the torrents of rain.

Thousands of cars were carried away by floods and hundreds of families had to be evacuated from their homes.

The city authorities said it was the heaviest April rainfall in a century.

More rain was expected to fall before the weather cleared on Thursday, forecasters said.

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skibboy
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04 APRIL 2013

Toll climbs to 59 in deadly Argentina flooding

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A volunteer loads a truck with donations in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires on April 4, 2013.

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A pick-up truck carries bottles of water to be given out to people affected by a powerful storm that slammed and flooded La Plata earlier this week, in this Argentine city located 63 km south of Buenos Aires, on April 4, 2013.

AFP - The number of deaths from record rains and flooding in Argentina climbed to 59, officials said as they searched Thursday for about 20 people still missing.

Most of the bodies were found Wednesday after a second day of record rainfall deluged Buenos Aires and nearby La Plata, where flooding submerged cars and sent people scrambling to rooftops for safety.

President Cristina Kirchner declared three days of national mourning starting Thursday in honor of the victims.

Kirchner surveyed the devastation by helicopter the day before, flying over La Plata, a bustling university town of about one million inhabitants where she grew up, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital.

Several people perished in Buenos Aires and its suburbs, while various others were missing and feared dead.

"There are still about 20 people who have not been found," said Argentine Deputy Security Minister Sergio Berni.

Lorena Bermet, 36, recounted how she sought refuge on the roof of her house with her husband and two young children until rescuers were able to rescue them by boat.

The building now is uninhabitable, she said, on the verge of collapsing and filled with snakes and rats that invaded after the flood.

"I've lost everything," she told AFP at a relief center where she sought assistance.

"I'm here to get clothes and shoes for my children," she said, adding that her family had escaped with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Residents of the most heavily flooded neighborhoods trickled back home after a staggering 40 centimeters (16 inches) of rain fell on La Plata during a two-hour period late Tuesday into Wednesday, knocking out phone and power lines and leaving about half the city in the dark.

Flood waters reached two meters (seven feet) in some places, turning city roadways into raging rivers.

"I heard piercing screams, I saw bodies float by. Nobody came to help, not a firefighter, or a policeman or a soldier," an outraged La Plata resident told local television.

In Buenos Aires, more than 15 centimeters of rain -- an April record -- fell between late Monday and early Tuesday, according to the local weather service.

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