Floods in Argentina kill 2, displace over 2,000 amid El Nino

By Maryam Ashalem de Andres

ISTANBUL (AA) - Flooding in northeastern Argentina has killed two people and forced more than 2,000 others from their homes, with rising river levels threatening communities across the region, Argentine newspaper Pagina 12 reported Saturday.

Heavy rainfall has caused the Parana, Uruguay and Iguazu rivers to rise, affecting communities near Argentina's borders with Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, according to the report.

In Chaco province in northeastern Argentina --mainly in Puerto Vilelas and Barranqueras -- between 1,200 and 1,300 people left their homes, provincial Civil Protection Deputy Secretary Gustavo Santos said Friday.

"This will continue for a couple of months. The river will keep rising and falling constantly," Santos said.

In neighboring Corrientes province, in northeastern Argentina, more than 1,000 people had left their homes, according to a Civil Defense report released Wednesday.

Floodwaters inundated several neighborhoods in Paso de la Patria, a town in northeastern Argentina on the Parana River, after a protective embankment broke under pressure from rising waters.

Two rural workers drowned in Corrientes while moving cattle between islands to protect the animals from the floods.

Authorities warned that rainfall forecast in the upper Parana and Uruguay river basins could cause further river rises next week.

In Misiones province, storms on Thursday and Friday damaged more than 100 homes and forced road and bridge closures as streams overflowed, local media reported.

At Iguazu Falls, located on the border between Argentina and Brazil, the Iguazu River's flow reached 10 times its seasonal average in mid-October.

Several tourist circuits have reopened, but access to the Devil's Throat, the waterfalls' most famous section, remains closed.

El Nino is a climate phenomenon characterized by unusually warm surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Mariam Ashalem De Andres