Extreme weather has battered many parts of the world this year, but few countries have suffered more in lives, homes and crops lost than Peru, the Andean country that has been beset with torrential rains and massive flooding for much of this year.
The Peruvian government yesterday raised the death toll from floods to 94 while relief agencies estimated that 700,000 people have been left homeless in 12 of the country’s 25 provinces. The cost to Peru’s economy in lost productivity has been estimated at $3.1bn, or 1.6% of the country’s annual output of goods and services.
The price tag for fixing roads and bridges is at least $1bn and will take two to three years to complete, Transportation Minister Martin Vizcarra said.
Widespread damage to roads and highways has isolated many victims, hampering relief efforts. One affected city is the beach town of Catacaos, where floodwaters reaching 6 feet high have killed four and left much of the city inundated. Five hundred people there were evacuated on Tuesday morning, with many others still awaiting rescue.
“We’re trapped and we can’t get out,” said Carmela Calle, a 43-year old housewife in Catacaos who spoke to the Los Angeles Times by phone. “Please help us. We are on the roof with a newborn baby and two elderly relatives. We are desperate and without food. We have lost everything.”
The government’s meteorology service said there is little chance of a respite in the near future, as heavy rains are forecast to continue through this weekend. Rains have been unseasonably intense since January with the most severe damages reported in the country’s northwest coastal areas due to what has been described as a coastal El Nino.
Eight people have been reported killed in Lima, the capital, with 8,400 homes destroyed by the flooding. Some southern and central parts of the capital have gone six days without drinking water.
Damages were worse in the northwestern city of Piura, a metropolis of 1.8mn, where rising floodwaters reached the central square known as Plaza de Armas, killing four and forcing hundreds of families to abandon their homes. Four bridges connecting the centre of the town with outlying districts were reported washed out.
More than 1,200 people in Piura have been rescued from flooded homes, according to General Jorge Chavez of COEN, the Spanish acronym for the National Centre for Emergency Operations. Military and police personnel were using inflatable boats to reach areas left isolated by floods, he said.
“We know this is an extreme situation, but we are pleading for calm. Please be confident that all will be taken care of,” Chavez said. But there were widespread complaints that officials were responding too slowly.
“We don’t know where to turn because no one is helping us. We hear on TV that the government is sending support but until now we have seen nothing,” said Hector Santos, a Piura resident and owner of a flooded house. “We have no place to sleep,” he said, telling a radio reporter he was speaking from his roof.
Reynaldo Hilbck Guzman, governor of Piura province, said the volume of water coursing through the Piura River is unprecedented and overwhelming levees. Floods already have destroyed 15,000 acres of crops, he said.
A spokesman for President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said the government has sent hundreds of military and police personnel to help in relief efforts. He also appointed special ministers in each province to manage relief efforts. COEN reported that a total of 150,000 houses and businesses have been flooded out.
“I have lost my grocery store and my house, which no longer exists,” said Mariano Carreras of Changoyape, a town in Lambayeque province.
“My children have no clothes to wear, and the flood took away all their school books,” he told a Times reporter by phone. “We are desperate and having nothing. Who will help us?”
International aid has begun to arrive, with the US pledging $525,000 million in relief. China’s ambassador to Peru, Jia Guide, said his country will donate $1.5mn to relief efforts. Also pledging aid are France, South Korea, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and the Vatican, among others.

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