Six people are dead and countless others displaced across Central and South America following catastrophic flooding brought on by the El Niño weather pattern.
Officials in Paraguay declared a state of emergency after the River Paraguay, which runs from Brazil to Argentina, rose to 25 feet, its highest level in 23 years. The measure frees up $3.5 million in disaster funds to help 130,000 Paraguayans left homeless, many forced to find refuge in parks, schools, military buildings, and makeshift shelters around the country's capital Asuncion.
In Paraguay, more flee worst floods in decades as flood defenses creak https://t.co/qPYf7vYNTz #floods pic.twitter.com/5cVyTO074w
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"We are very uncertain about what could happen with the (flood) wall and we do not want to run any type of risk, so the population has been alerted," said Paraguay's minister of national emergencies, Joaquín Roa, noting that some people didn't evacuate in fear of looting.
Four of the reported casualties came in Paraguay while the other two occurred in Argentina, where 20,000 people in the border city of Concordia were evacuated. The floods prompted 9,000 people each in Uruguay and Brazil to leave their homes.
"(The flooding) was directly influenced by the El Niño phenomenon which has intensified the frequency and intensity of rains," Paraguay's national emergencies office said, as reported by the BBC.
The El Niño effect stretches from drought-stricken Colombia to the United States, where forecasters partially blamed it to a flurry of tornadoes that left at least 11 people dead throughout the Midwest over the Christmas weekend.
Newly-elected Argentina President Mauricio Macri said flooding in his country is a direct result of climate change, promising federal aid to help build walls along river beds and homes away from vulnerable areas.
"Fortunately, the rains have lessened, and the rivers have stopped rising," Macri said.
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