Deadly landslides in Peru. A series of landslides due to heavy rains in the southern region of Arequipa on Monday, February 6, killed at least 36 people, according to the final report, still preliminary, provided to the local RPP radio by civil defense official Nicolas Valcarcel district in the province of Camana. The first estimate from the National Civil Defense Institute in Arequipa is that 15 people were killed, 20 injured and two missing.
The most affected area is the Nicolas Valcarcel area in the province of Camana, west of Arequipa. Four communities in the county and neighboring Rio Grande region were particularly affected. “The situation in these four villages is very unfavorable (…) both in the Rio Grande and in Nicolas Valcarcel”Rochel Sanchez, the governor of the region, told local television Canal N. He explained that there is active mining in the hills surrounding these villages. “Probably we have people (and workers) there who couldn’t get out and were washed away by landslides.”
The total number of casualties in Arequipa now stands at about 12,000, according to the region’s governor. Landslides in Nicolas Valcarcel damaged at least 310 houses and completely destroyed 10 others, as well as affecting a health center and three rural roads, civil defense said. The Arequipa authorities have asked the central government of Lima to declare a state of emergency due to natural disasters in the region.
Source: TF1