Two deaths and more than a thousand homeless people had left until Tuesday the floods in the central-southern zone of Chile, after several days of intense rains and winds.
President Gabriel Boric visited the Maule region on Monday, one of the most affected, and decreed a “state of catastrophe” from the O’Higgins region, near Santiago, to the Biobío region, some 500 kilometers south of the capital.
Since June, this area faces the heaviest rains in 30 yearsexacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon.
According to the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred), there are 26,000 people isolated, almost 34,000 evacuated and some 38,000 who were left without electricity.
“When you receive these messages, it’s not a joke, you must evacuate immediately,” Boric said, urging the population to abide by these types of instructions.
Experts anticipate that it will continue to rain in this mountainous area, increasing the risk of landslides and further flooding.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC News World. Download the latest version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.
- Do you already know our YouTube channel? Subscribe!
See original article on BBC