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Honduras + 5 more

Latin America & The Caribbean Weekly Situation Update (14-20 February 2022) As of 21 February 2022

Attachments

KEY FIGURES

152 PEOPLE DEAD FOLLOWING FLOODING & LANDSLIDES IN PETROPOLIS, BRAZIL 800K HECTARES OF LAND BURNED BY WILDFIRES IN NORTHERN ARGENTINA

SOUTH AMERICA: EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

BRAZIL: FLOODING

National and local authorities have launched rescue and recovery operations after heavy rains in Rio de Janeiro’s mountainous Petropolis municipality triggered mudslides and flooding that have killed at least 152 people and left another 120 missing, per state officials. Municipal officials, declared a state of disaster.

The combination of 10 inches of rainfall in three hours, the same amount of rain received in the previous 30 days combined, and densely packed homes on mountainsides have contributed to landslides dragging away entire houses and vehicles and, in some cases, burying them completely.

The Government is supporting state and municipal response efforts, with Civil Defence, firefighters and armed forces personnel working throughout affected communities and heavy machinery, ambulances and aircraft deployed to support operations. Petropolis previously suffered floodrelated death tolls of 1,700 in 1967 and of 900 in 2011.

ARGENTINA: WILDFIRES

Since mid-January 2022, authorities in north-eastern province of Corrientes have been dealing with wildfires that have thus far claimed 800,000 hectares, per official reports. Corrientes officials, who have already declared a state of emergency, indicate that the province has lost about 9 per cent of its land to 8 fires, with fires consuming about 30,000 hectares each day.

The fires owe to a historic drought linked to the La Niña climate phenomenon that has created scarce rains and two years of abnormally high temperatures and low humidity in a rural farming province that normally sees high rainfall.

The fires have caused losses of more than US$240 million. Firefighters from other parts of Argentina are supporting local firefighters, as are firefighters from Bolivia and Brazil. Forecasters say that mild rainfall that began on 20 February is expected to continue throughout the week.

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