Floods leave less than 1 dead in Buenos Aires province

Residents of the city of La Emilia go by canoe through flooded street

A person was found dead Tuesday in the town of La Emilia in the province of Buenos Aires after rains that left the municipality completely flooded, Argentine security minister Patricia Bullrich told a news conference.

"Unfortunately, one person has died and we are investigating what the reasons were," said Bullrich, adding that he is still working to confirm his identity.

Bullrich also called for "confidence" to citizens and clarified that there are many professionals working on evacuation tasks and helping residents of the municipality "most affected" by the rains in the last hours.

Residents of the neighboring town of San Nicolás de los Arroyos, where there were more than 200 evacuations, were all day collaborating with the emergency teams sent to La Emilia, prompting the minister to ask them to leave the municipality to facilitate the work Of security professionals.

"The assessment is that in less than 48 hours we could get the water down and people could start rebuilding their homes," he predicted.

As the Defense Ministry said in a statement, La Emilia is "one of the most affected places since it has more than a thousand evacuees."

In Santa Fe province, more than 500 people were evacuated last Monday after "three weeks of heavy rains," Governor Miguel Lifschitz explained.

The floods in the various provinces of Argentina add to other natural disasters such as those in Jujuy (north), where a collapse left two dead and two disappeared in the municipality of Volcán, in addition to the tail of a tornado in the province of La Rioja ( west).

At both locations, security agents are scavenging the area to recognize and assess the damage done and thus begin cleaning and rebuilding.