Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday.
Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm.
The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.”
The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities said.
The mayor’s office said more casualties were possible in the city of 350,000, located 600km southwest of the capital, Buenos Aires.
The missing girls “may have been carried away by the water,” Bullrich told Radio Mitre.
At least five of the victims died on flooded roadways, possibly after being trapped in their vehicles by fast-rising water.
The downpour, which began on Friday morning, dumped more than 40cm of rain in the area in just eight hours, “practically what Bahia Blanca gets in an entire year,” Buenos Aires Minister of Security Javier Alonso said.
“This is unprecedented,” he added.
Tempers flared on Saturday as Bullrich and Argentine Minister of Defense Luis Petri tried to visit an affected neighborhood, with residents complaining they should have visited the area the previous night, according to a video shared on social media.
Some locals tried to drag Bullrich toward floodwaters, shouting “get wet” and other abuse, before she was pulled away from the scrum by police and government officials.
For Andrea Dufourg, director of environmental policy for the city of Itzuaingo outside Buenos Aires, the extreme weather event “is a clear example of climate change.”
“Unfortunately this will continue to take place... We have no other option than to prepare cities, educate citizens, establish effective early warning systems,” Dufourg said.
The number of evacuees on Saturday stood at 850, down from a peak of 1,321, the mayor’s office said.
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