In recent days, residents of Lima have become stranded as streets are suddenly flooded by rainwater. People on the outskirts of the city have awoken to find their homes flooded.
Source: AFP
Periodic warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean causes increased evaporation and saddles clouds with immense loads of water, which then fall on coastal areas, causing rivers to overflow and avalanches from steep hillsides. A lack of wind keeps the clouds in place and prolongs the rain. Intense downpours have sent torrents of water and mud whipping through city streets, sweeping away homes, furniture, and sometimes people.
Since January, when the rainy season typically reaches its height, at least 75 people have been killed and about 100,000 have lost everything. Another 630,000 people have suffered damages. The country is braced for another month of floods before the rainy season winds down.
Below, a woman swept away by muddy flood waters emerges from a pool of debris, which livestock have also become stuck in.
Terrible. Huayco en Punta Hermosa arrastra a una mujer y a animales. Qué espanto y cuánto dolor. pic.twitter.com/IRKK2VtrP3
— jimena ledgard (@jimedylan) March 16, 2017
In Lima, classes have been canceled and water service was suspended after treatment systems were clogged, sparking shortages of bottled water at stores as people rushed to stock up.
"There's no electricity, no drinking water ... no transit because streets are flooded," Valentin Fernandez, mayor of Nuevo Chimbote, a coastal town north of Lima, told Reuters.
Source: Reuters
Over the weekend, floodwaters surged into Trujillo, the country's third-largest city, leaving people clinging to each other for safety. "Huaycos," what Peruvians call powerful avalanches of mud and stone coming down from Andean hillsides after heavy rains, continued to do damage.
Source: AFP
"We are confronting a serious climatic problem," President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said in a statement broadcast live Friday afternoon. "There hasn't been an incident of this strength along the coast of Peru since 1998."
Source: Associated Press
Disorderly construction in some areas has pushed homes into areas vulnerable to flooding. Kuczynski also declared Peru's Central Highway in a state of emergency on Friday and announced he would be boosting funds for reconstruction.
Sources: El Tiempo, Associated Press
The president said he was optimistic that the country was in a good position to make a quick recovery, but he urged Peruvians to be cautious. "This hasn't ended," he warned. "And it will continue for some time more."
Source: Associated Press
The intense rains and flooding come as Kuczynski, like many of his counterparts in the region, is experiencing the legal and political fallout of corruption investigations into Brazilian construction company Odebrecht's dealings around Latin America.
Source: Reuters
A poll taken March 15-17 found his approval had fallen 6 percentage points to 32%. The poll didn't assess how Peruvians viewed Kuczynski's handling of the rains and flooding, but a majority did not feel that public safety, the economy, or the fight against corruption have improved during Kuczynski's 8-month-old centrist government.
Source: Reuters
Kuczynski's approval rating has dropped by half from a of 63% in September. But legislators from across Peru's political landscape have pledged to avoid clashes with the executive so the government can focus on emergency efforts.
Source: Reuters
Chavez, the general handling Peru's response to the disaster, said the country needed to rethink its infrastructure to prepare for the possible "tropicalization" of the northern desert coast, which some climate models have predicted as temperatures rise.
Source: Reuters
"We need more and better bridges, we need highways and cities with drainage systems," Chavez said, according to Reuters. "We can't count on nature being predictable."
Source: Reuters
