Argentina Floods, 48,000 people to flee their homes
Pastor Dale Morgan
Argentina Floods, **48,000 people to flee their homes*
By MAYRA PERTOSSI
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 31, 2007; 11:00 PM
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Rising rivers in three rain-soaked provinces
have forced some 48,000 people to flee their homes and floodwaters have
claimed seven lives, authorities said Saturday.
Civil defense officials said Santa Fe province in Argentina's northeast
remained the hardest-hit, with about 38,000 evacuees in and around the
provincial capital of Santa Fe, 250 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, and
the cities of Rosario and Canada de Gomez.
Rain has lashed the region for five days, forcing evacuees to struggle
through waist-deep waters with laundry baskets containing only a few
possessions. Some tried to load refrigerators and TV sets on trucks and
escape to higher ground, while others tried to cross flooded highways in
small boats.
A woman's body was recovered from the Parana River near Rosario, coast
guard officials said Saturday, bringing to three the number dead after a
house tumbled into the river a day earlier. The bodies of two men were
recovered Friday.
Authorities said Saturday a 70-year-old farmer died after he was swept
away by the Gualeguay River in Entre Rios province while trying to
rescue some of his livestock.
That brought to seven the dead over two days, including a man killed
Friday trying to save a dog from a stream and an elderly man with
Alzheimer's disease who was alone when he drowned in his flooded home,
authorities said.
Jose Salim Jodor, mayor of the Entre Rios city of Gualeguay, said about
8,000 people had to leave their water-filled homes in that low-lying
province on Argentina's eastern border with Uruguay. Meanwhile, some 400
flood victims were reported in central Cordoba province on the border
with Santa Fe province.
President Nestor Kirchner pledged federal assistance for the victims and
residents of Buenos Aires have begun organizing charity drives of food
and other emergency assistance for the hardest-hit areas.
Uruguayan authorities reported some 380 people had to be evacuated from
regions near the Argentine border because of flooding of small rivers
and streams.