There were major floods in Brazil in January and February
Argentina
floods: Dozens dead in La Plata and Buenos Aires
Dozens
of people have died in the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina
after heavy rains caused flash floods.
BBC,
3
April, 2013
One
of the heaviest storms recorded moved through the province hitting
both the capital, Buenos Aires, and the city of La Plata.
In
La Plata, between 300mm (12in) and 400mm of rain fell in a few hours,
At
least 35 people were killed there, said provincial governor Daniel
Scioli, adding that the city "has never seen anything equal"
to it.
Mr
Scioli said city authorities had been discovering the bodies as the
flood waters slowly receded.
At
least another six people had died in the city of Buenos Aires on
Tuesday.
About
280,000 people remain without power in Buenos Aires province,
according to figures given by National Planning Minister Julio de
Vido.
"Our
job is focused on restoring service, but we're going to wait until
the equipment dries to guarantee the safety of the electricity
workers, because we don't want any deaths," said Mr de Vido.
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.
Some
2,500 people have been evacuated from their homes.
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.
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