CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay — An intensifying El Niño-linked storm season this week brought flooding to Paraguay, killed two farm workers in Argentina's cattle belt and damaged coastal communities in Peru and Mexico, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Source: Reuters

In Paraguay, the rising Paraná River — South America's second-largest river and a key commercial waterway — has affected about 4,200 families, according to the country's national emergency agency. Two dozen families took refuge late on Wednesday at a church in Ciudad del Este, near the border with Brazil, pitching tents on a soccer field and organising communal kitchens with support from the church and local businesses.

A 58-year-old woman died after her home collapsed in the rains, Reuters said. In the riverside town of San Rafael, Antonina Sánchez, 65, described fleeing her home as the water rose: “I was surprised because the water came very quickly. My house, my entire kitchen collapsed; it's caving in,” she told Reuters.

Surf, hail, mud and erosion across the region

On Mexico's Pacific coast, part of a luxury condominium complex in the tourist town of San Pancho, in Nayarit state, collapsed on Wednesday after pounding surf ate away the sand beneath it, leaving the structure tilted dramatically toward the sea. Coastal communities in Peru were also damaged, and two farm workers were killed in Argentina's cattle belt, according to Reuters.

UN officials warned this week that the El Niño pattern could drive a record increase in Pacific Ocean temperatures as it moves around the globe like a “wrecking ball”, triggering floods in some regions and droughts in others. The World Meteorological Organization has predicted temperatures in the central Pacific will rise about 3.8 degrees Celsius above average between November and January, peaking around December, causing one of the most turbulent storm seasons on record.

Source: Reuters / World Meteorological Organization