Sawt Falasteen - Border crossings shut as heavy snow coats Argentine Andes

Truck drivers said they had spent up to eight days stuck in one spot after over three meters (10 feet) of snowfall blocked roads and shuttered the Puente del Inca border crossing into Chile.

The key entry point into Argentina's neighbor is located in the western Mendoza province, from where around 110 people have been evacuated since the snow began falling over a week ago.

The bad weather broke at the weekend, deputy local police commissioner Oscar Fernandez said, but the region was bracing for another incoming storm.

"We took advantage of a small window of good weather to reach the (border) outpost" of Puente del Inca, he told AFP, adding that "we have almost two meters (of snow) on top of the roofs."

With a fresh storm arriving on Wednesday, he said, "conditions in the high mountains could become difficult again."

In the town of Uspallata, 90 kilometers away from Puente del Inca, almost 1,000 trucks were waiting for conditions to clear so they could cross into Chile with their cargo.

"We've been here for eight days now. It's a bit cold, but we're handling it well, always smiling," said Brazilian driver Fernando Roberto.

It will take "five or six" days for the trucks to move along, even after the border crossing reopens, Mendoza's deputy logistics minister Alberto Marengo told a press conference.

Several more border crossings closed in the provinces of Catamarca, Rio Negro, Neuquen and Chubut.

The airport in Rio Negro's tourist town of Bariloche closed due to the storm on Monday, and hundreds of passengers had their flights rerouted to the nearby Neuquen province.

Q.Jaber--SF-PST