Heavy downpours continue to hit northern Peru

Peru's northwestern region of Piurawas was hit by heavy downpours for over 15 hours from Saturday night into Sunday, with up to 184 millimeters of rain falling on the area, announced the governor of Piura, Fernando Hilbck, on Sunday.

In a statement, he said the Piura and Tambogrande rivers had seen their flow increase to 2,371 and 2,163 cubic meters per second, respectively. Red alerts have been declared for both rivers, as their infrastructure is reaching the limits of its capacity.

Contact has been cut with a number of villages along the coast although the government has dispatched heavy machinery to seek to reinforce critical points along the rivers and to repair road access.

11 Peruvian regions, especially in the northwest, have been hit hard by heavy rains due to the El Nino phenomenon.

El Nino has caused at least 90 deaths in Peru, as well as 270 injured, 20 missing and around 800,000 people affected.

She added that a lack of urban planning and prevention had worsened the situation in Peru, causing great damage to homes, highways, fields and public infrastructure.

Peru's National Institute of Civil Defense updated its numbers Saturday to show 153,329 homes have been damaged, as well as 1,250 schools, 509 bridges and 7,500km of roads.

source: Xinhua