By Cesar Olmedo
CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay, Oct 22 (Reuters) – 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.
Part of a luxury condominium complex on Mexico’s Pacific coast in the tourist town of San Pancho in Nayarit State collapsed on Wednesday after pounding surf ate away the sand beneath it, exposing its foundation and leaving the structure tilted dramatically toward the sea.
In Paraguay, two dozen families took refuge late on Wednesday at a church near Paraguay’s border with Brazil after their homes flooded and more residents anxiously watched the swelling Parana, South America’s second-largest river, as rains battered the region.
UN officials warned this week that the El Niño weather 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.
In Paraguay, the rising Parana River, a key commercial waterway, has affected about 4,200 families, according to the country’s national emergency agency.
A 58-year-old woman died after her home collapsed in the rains.
At the church now doubling as a shelter, in Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este, dozens of residents pitched tents on a soccer field while others organized communal kitchens with support from the church and local businesses.
In San Rafael, a riverside town, Antonina Sánchez, 65, recounted how she had to flee.
“I was surprised because the water came very quickly. My house, my entire kitchen collapsed; it’s caving in,” she said.
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.
RAIN, HAIL, MUD AND EROSION
Elsewhere in Latin America this week, two farm workers died near Bella Vista in Argentina’s Corrientes province while moving cattle away from flooded areas near the Parana, local media reported.
Hundreds of residents have been evacuated across the province, though above-average rainfall in parts of the Pampas agricultural belt could benefit crops.
In Chile’s capital Santiago, a flooded stream triggered a mudslide on October 8 onto city streets, and days later, a storm blanketed roads with hail and flooded streets.
In Peru, authorities on Thursday announced financial aid and tax relief for businesses affected by extreme weather battering the country’s Pacific coast. The government plans to allocate 18 billion soles ($5.22 billion) in 2027 towards mitigating the economic impact.
(Reporting by Cesar Olmedo and Reuters TV; additional reporting by Daniela Desantis, Marco Aquino and Nicolas Misculin; Editing by Lucinda Elliott and Cynthia Osterman)
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