Argentina Floods Leave 12 Dead, Thousands Evacuated

At least a dozen people have died in Argentina after intense rains have caused dangerous floods in the central region, officials said Friday.



The civil defense agency of Cordoba said 10 people died in the central farming province after two weeks of frequent storms, the heaviest rainfall in half a century.



Of them, the last reported death was in El Fortin, a village 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of the provincial capital, also called Cordoba, the agency said in a statement. A 50-year-old man was found dead after falling with his horse into an irrigation channel on a ranch outside El Fortin.



Diego Concha, head of the agency, said 1,434 people remain evacuated in Cordoba, most of them in the village of Idiazabal, which is completely flooded. Sandbags and have been put in place to help prevent further flooding and a drainage channel has been built, he said in a press conference.



Concha added that weather forecasts call for an ease in the rainfall across the province.



"In some places we could have some light drizzle that shouldn't at all affect the current conditions," he said.



At the same meeting, Fabian Lopez, the province's minister of water, environment and public services, said floodwaters are expected to recede "over the next few days to normalize the situation."



Two other deaths were reported in Santiago del Estero, a province directly north of Cordoba where more than 3,300 people have been evacuated, state newswire Telam reported, citing police reports.



A 38-year-old man was found dead late Thursday in the Dulce River, which broke its banks on the outskirts of the capital, also called Santiago del Estero.



Earlier this week, a 78-year-old man died after the rain-drenched roof of his house collapsed in Barranca Colorada, a village on the banks of the Dulce River.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Arjantin