At least three deaths, including a girl, and heavy material damage caused the rains that fell in the last hours in Paraguay, relief agencies and authorities reported Wednesday.
Torrential rains with strong winds hit different areas of the country, especially Asunción, which on Tuesday night suffered floods caused by a gale.
In the midst of the storm, a 34-year-old man lost his life in the city of San Lorenzo, Central Department, buried by one of the walls of his house, according to local media.
For its part, the police confirmed on Wednesday that a little girl aged just two years old died after being washed away by the waters in Ciudad de Este, some 300 kilometers from Asunción, where numerous roads remained waterlogged after the rainfall.
A man of approximately 50 years old became the third fatal victim. The subject fell into a stream caused by rain in the town of Villeta (about 27 kilometers from this capital), said firefighters.
Numerous homes, schools and health care centers in various locations, as well as a penitentiary in the department of San Pedro, lost part of the roof during the storm.
A source from the National Emergency Secretariat (SEN) told the EFE news agency, without specifying details, that they received reports of damage from the departments of San Pedro, Concepción and Central.
The acting minister of the SEN, Miguel Kurita, lamented in statements to ABC that the most vulnerable families suffer the “most harm”.
Kurita described as the “biggest problem” the streams of water that formed as a result of the storm.
In the midst of the emergency experienced on Tuesday in Asunción, dozens of peasants who had arrived in the capital to participate in a march called for today took refuge in the Central Railway Station, now converted into a museum.
The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology revealed that a “storm system” affected the center, south and east of the eastern region of the country, where Asunción is located.
According to that entity, the intense rainfall caused that in approximately 20 minutes “more than 50 millimeters” of water accumulated in some cities in the Central Department.
(With information from EFE)
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