An intensifying El Nino-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 October 22. In Paraguay, the rising Parana 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.
Source: Reuters
A 58-year-old woman died in Paraguay after her home collapsed in the rains, Reuters said. Near the border with Brazil, two dozen families took refuge late on Wednesday at a church in Ciudad del Este after their homes flooded, pitching tents on a soccer field and organising communal kitchens with support from the church and local businesses. In the riverside town of San Rafael, resident Antonina Sanchez, 65, told Reuters the water came very quickly and her kitchen collapsed.
Source: Reuters
EFE reporting carried by teleSUR likewise said severe flooding from heavy rainfall and the rising Parana forced the evacuation of 4,200 families in Paraguay's Alto Parana department, corroborating the emergency agency's figure.
Source: EFE via teleSUR / EIN Presswire Paraguay newswire
In Mexico, part of a luxury condominium complex in the Pacific tourist town of San Pancho in Nayarit state collapsed on Wednesday after pounding surf ate away the sand beneath it, Reuters reported. UN officials warned this week that the El Nino pattern could drive a record increase in Pacific Ocean temperatures, and 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.
Source: Reuters
El Nino is a warming of the Pacific that disrupts weather worldwide, bringing floods to some regions and droughts to others. Forecasters say the current event is shaping up as one of the most turbulent storm seasons on record, with saturated ground and swollen rivers raising the risk of further flooding across the region in the weeks ahead.