South America hit by floods, drought from powerful El Nino

Heavy summer rains have caused rivers to swell across a vast area.

Locals attempt to recover belongings at a flooded neighbourhood in Asuncion on Thursday.

In the hardest-hit country, Paraguay, around 90,000 people in the area around the capital, Asuncion, have been evacuated, the municipal Emergency Office said.

Many are poor families living in precarious housing along the banks of the River Paraguay.

Uruguay on Wednesday also declared a state of emergency in three northern departments affected by flooding.

NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro in Rio de Janeiro tells our Newscast unit that the flooding has killed five people and displaced 150,000.

Heavy rain began to fall in the region on 18 December, swelling the Uruguay and Quarai rivers.

In northeastern Argentina, two people were killed and about 20,000 were evacuated from their homes by flooding caused by a rise in the level of the Uruguay River, authorities said. The cities of Chaco, Corrientes, Formosa, and Santa Fe have been affected, specifically Entre Rios, whose provincial government declared a state of emergency.

According to the local Camsat non-governmental organisation, some 60 per cent of the refugees are children, who will have to spend the holiday in uncertain circumstances, many of them without presents.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Some parts of South America are being hit by devastating floods, while others are being affected by severe drought that experts say are caused by this year’s powerful El Nino weather phenomenon. “We knew it would have its strongest impact toward the end of spring, start of summer… but we could not know how much”.

On Saturday, Rousseff carried out a helicopter inspection of the flood damage in southern Brazil, particularly the municipality of Uruguaiana, located on the country’s border with Argentina.

This year’s El Nino, which sparks global climate extremes, is the strongest in more than 15 years, the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization said last month.