The river overflowed, flooding three neighbourhoods and forcing families to leave their homes. The evacuees were sheltered at the municipal gym. Firefighters in motorboats meanwhile assisted residents who refused to leave their homes — some staying on their houses’ roofs  — afraid they might get robbed. Civil Defence and the Red Cross were also helping with the aid tasks, and they will be joined by Armed Forces personnel.
Due to the swelling of the river, routes 8 and 9 were blocked since Saturday night.
Lennon said she was very concerned about the situation and that she had “not seen floods like this before.”
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called Scioli to offer the national government’s support and aid to cope with the situation. “We agreed with the President to join efforts and she said the national government will put at our disposal the logistic means to solve this,” Scioli told reporters.
“I not only came here to coordinate tasks but to try to understand the origin. The neighbours say it’s these irregular channels that some farmers have made to avoid the fields from flooding, and that the water flows into the centre of Areco,” Scioli said. “The Areco River has never overflowed in this way,” the governor emphasized. He promised to find “those responsible” for causing the floods.
Social Development Minister Alicia Kirchner and Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido also visited the flooded area, and promised their portfolios’ cooperation for relief operations.
De Vido, who flew over the town, said that, “even though between Friday and Saturday 130mm of rain poured, it doesn’t justify such a flood.”
“In a many farms they made channels that end up in the river,” De Vido said.
He said today he will file a lawsuit so that the construction of illegal channels is probed and added that he will met the authorities of the town’s public works department to “plan solutions” to drain the area.
Provincial government sources reported Scioli asked Infrastructure Minister Cristina Alvarez Rodríguez to file a lawsuit asking for the causes of the flood to be probed.
In related news, about 250 people were forced to leave their homes in Arrecifes, also in Buenos Aires province, due to the heavy rainfall that caused the overflow of the Arrecifes river. Firefighters reported a man and his horse had been dragged by the strong current, but were later rescued.
Herald staff with DyN, Télam