Muddy water on Thursday spilled onto streets and into homes in a new round of unusually heavy rains that has killed at least a dozen people in Peru and now threatens flooding in the capital.
The intense rains and mudslides over the past three days have wrought havoc around the Andean nation and caught residents in Lima, a desert city of 10 million where it almost never rains, by surprise.
In one of the more dramatic incidents, stunned residents watched — and used their cellphone cameras — as a woman escaped after being swept into an avalanche of mud, wood debris and farm animals about 53km south of downtown Lima.
Photo: AP
Evangelina Chamorro, 32, had just dropped her two daughters at school and was feeding her pigs alongside her husband when they were pulled into a landslide.
Armando Rivera, Chamorro’s husband, told RPP radio they climbed a tree but the trunk broke.
They held on to each other’s hands, but Chamorro eventually lost her husband’s grip and got separated.
She emerged near a bridge, lifting herself from a current of wooden planks and walking toward the shore covered head to toe in mud.
“There’s a person there!” an onlooker cried out.
Chamorro collapsed as she reached land and was quickly carried by several men to an ambulance. She sustained only minor injuries.
Authorities on Thursday said that they expect the rains caused by El Nino, which generates a warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, to continue for another two weeks.
Officials say a total of 62 people have died and 12,000 homes have been destroyed in storms this year.
In Lima, the swelling Huaycoloro River swept away two trucks and threatened to destroy a bridge. Schools nationwide have suspended classes.
Seven of the nation’s most dangerous criminals were temporarily transported to another facility after a river near the prison threatened to overflow.
Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski late onWednesday said that authorities are prepared to provide shelter and relief to those left homeless.
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