Chile faces another natural disaster – flash floods leave nine people dead, 19 missing

#Antofagasta #AtacamaDesert #climatechange #chilefloods Torrential rains in the Atacama Desert in Chile has left behind a trail of disaster and communities in Chile's northern desert region had to retrieve their houses and cars out of the mud and work to re-open roads and communication links as floods devastated a number of cities and left nine people dead. Another nineteen people were also reported to be missing.
This has been confirmed by Sub-secretary Mahmud Aleuy. He also anticipates the number of dead and missing to go up. This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 29 March 2015.

Initial information would suggest that roads had been cut to more than 40 communities and, many of them did not have access to potable water or electricity. The heavy rains had swelled the rivers and led to flash flooding in cities including Copiapo, Chanaral, Tierra Amarilla and Taltal, all hundreds of kilometres north of Santiago.
The precipitation in Antofagasta, 1376-Km north of Santiago, provided a stark example of the abnormal rain as indicated by the met department. It normally receives hardly 1.7mm of rain annually and, in this case, it received 24mm within two days.
The deluge has come following several days of high temperatures and a drought that stoked raging wildfires in Chile's south-central regions. These fires have burned nearly 93,000ha in the 2014-15 season – this is much above the annual average of 59,300ha over the previous five years.
Obviously, such drastic changes in the surroundings could be a result of climate change, global warming and environment degradation and authorities would need to address themselves to solve such problems on a long term basis.

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