Sunday, March 3, 2013

Destructive storm ‘Adán’ kills one in BA City

A powerful storm, known as ‘Adán,’ that brought with it strong winds, hit the City of Buenos Aires and the surrounding area yesterday causing one death, several injuries and flash floods. Trees were toppled and roofs flew off. Many vehicles were damaged. The storm hit the area at around 2:20am yesterday, affecting mainly the Buenos Aires City neighbourhoods of Villa Lugano, Palermo, Caballito and Belgrano, the city’s Civil Defence director Daniel Russo said. Government officials said that the first rainfall was “intense” with 30 millimetres falling in a short period of time, and 45 millimetres falling before dawn. The city of Córdoba was also affected.

A man drowned in one of the flash floods that hit the Buenos Aires metropolitan area in the neighbourhood of Barracas. The police said the victim was a 49-year-old Paraguayan citizen who died in the low-income housing area known as Zavaleta. After being found by neighbours, the man was rushed to the hospital where doctors pronounced he had died from asphyxiation.

Another storm- related accident occurred in the neighbourhood of Villa Lugano, where winds reached 70-80 kilometres per hour, causing the ceiling and beams of a Jumbo supermarket to fly off. The incident led to one person being injured and more than 50 cars were damaged in the neighbouring parking-lot.

Russo stated “the roof flew off into four different eight-storey buildings, at a time when the wind was reaching 80 kilometres per hour.” One resident said she was surprised at the damage and emphasized how lucky they were that nobody was injured.“This could have been avoided if they had made a real roof for the supermarket, instead of just putting a new roof over the old one,” she added.

In Palermo, a tree fell on a truck and flattened its rear at the corner of Bonpland and Costa Rica. Meanwhile in the neighbourhood of Caballito a tree fell in the middle of Yerbal street, causing traffic to be interrupted in the area.

The province of Córdoba also faced the severe weather pattern with many areas being affected. In the provincial region of Mendiolaza, two girls suffered injuries because a wall in their house collapsed on them when a pine tree was toppled.

Police sources stated that the girls were sleeping in their beds during the collapse but their father managed to rescue them from under the debris. The girls had bruises and cuts on their heads. The Córdoba districts of Mendiolaza, Villa Allende and Saldán, as well as several other neighbouring regions, faced power outages because of trees falling on electrical cables.

Provincial Electric Energy (EPEC) spokesman Mariana González remarked in a radio interview: “We need to cut the trees to remove them and begin repair works.”

The meteorological service lifted the weather alert for “heavy rains, strong winds and possible hail” in the metropolitan area yesterday.

Herald with DyN, Telam, Ambito.com