Sawt Falasteen - State of 'catastrophe' as downpours hit Chile

A person died in the southern city of Linares when a street lamp post fell after 48 hours of downpours and strong winds, the Senapred disaster response service said.

Chile's weather service issued the highest level of alarm, covering some 14 million of the 20 million people living in five of the country's 16 regions.

Prior to the arrival of the flood waters, the country's central region had battled severe drought for 15 years.

"We need boats to get people out," a resident in one of the affected towns, Curanilahue, told national television.

Curanilahue, some 600 kilometers (372 miles) south of the capital Santiago, has been hard hit as the Curanilahue and Las Ranas rivers overflowed after the area received 350 millimeters (13.7 inches) of rain in just hours -- more than in 2023 as a whole.

President Gabriel Boric, in a message from Sweden where he is on an official visit, warned that the rains "will continue very strongly," as he announced the first death.

Interior Minister Carolina Toha, before boarding a plane to visit the affected areas, said a state of "catastrophe" had been announced to expedite the deployment of resources.

Senapred said the downpours have affected some 4,300 people by Thursday.

Santiago, too, was affected, with a prediction about 80mm of rain in the coming hours -- the same as for a normal month of June.

Schools in the capital and other regions were closed, and the authorities urged people to limit their movements.

In the city of Vina del Mar, a 12-storey apartment building is at risk of collapse after the rains caused a massive sink hole underneath it.

The weather service said a cold front over the country was accompanied by something called an "atmospheric river" -- a strip of air carrying huge amounts of moisture.

H.Darwish--SF-PST