Zwaar noodweer en tornado zorgt voor chaos in Zuid Amerika

quote:

Tornado's en stortregens zaaien dood en verderf in Zuid Amerika

In het zuiden van Zuid-Amerika zijn ten minste zestien mensen omgekomen door noodweer. Getuigen en media spraken woensdag van tornado's, die met snelheden van 120 kilometer per uur rond raasden. Verwoestende regens verwoestten honderden huizen.



Zeven kinderen dood
In het noordoosten van Argentinië kwamen tien mensen om, onder wie zeven kinderen. Op verschillende plaatsen vielen bomen om en kwamen elektrische leidingen naar beneden. Meer dan vijftig mensen raakten gewond. De verwoestingen zijn "ongelooflijk" zei de burgemeester van de plaats San Pedro, Orlando Wolfart. Een aantal huizen is weggevaagd van de funderingen.

Chaos in Sao Paulo
In de Zuid-Braziliaanse staat Santa Caterina kwamen vier mensen om het leven. Het doorgaans drukke verkeer in en rond de miljoenenstad San Paulo kwam tot stilstand door vernietigende regens. Twee mensen kwamen om in het gebied, dat door het noodweer met overstromingen en aardverschuivingen te maken kreeg. Vliegtuigen liepen vertraging op en piloten moesten volledig vertrouwen op hun instrumenten vanwege een zicht van vrijwel 0 meter.



Van 35 naar 12 graden
Ook in Paraguay vlogen de dakpannen in het rond en veel landbouwgronden liepen flinke schade op. De temperatuur in hoofdstad Asuncion dook van 35 naar 12 graden door het noodweer.

quote:

Freak 'tornado' kills 17 in Argentina, Brazil

BUENOS AIRES — A violent storm described as a freak "tornado" killed at least 17 people in the southern part of South America and punched hundreds of houses off their foundations, officials said.

Northern Argentina and southern Brazil, and the small countries of Uruguay and Paraguay wedged between them, were hit by a fierce atmospheric mass Tuesday packing rain, hail and winds over 120 kilometers (70 miles) per hour.

In northeastern Argentina, 10 people died, including seven children, authorities said.

More than 50 others were injured, and trees and power lines were toppled in the towns of Santa Rosa, Tobuna and Pozo Azul, said Ricardo Veselka Corrales, head of the local civil defense office.

Witnesses and local media described the storm as a "tornado."

The other seven fatalities occurred in Brazil's southern states of Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo, where flooding and mudslides swept through unstable slums.

Santa Catarina's state civil defense service, which counted four of the deaths, also called the sudden storm "a probable tornado."

South American meteorologists were wary of using that term, although the US National Climatic Data Center said the juncture of the four countries affected is the only zone in South America with a likelihood of experiencing such high-speed spinning tubes of destructive wind.

"It could have been a tornado," said Jorge Leguizamon, of Argentina's National Meteorological Service.

"The phenomenon still hasn't been classified. Experts will have to evaluate the damage," he said.

The provincial minister for Argentina's hard-hit area, Daniel Franco, said it was clear that the storm was "not normal for this area."



"We've always had very strong winds and torrential rains here," he said. "But this was a phenomenon never seen before. Houses were completely destroyed."

The devastation was "incredible," said the mayor of the Argentine town of San Pedro, Orlando Wolfart, noting that several homes had been wiped from their foundations.

Television images showed a destroyed landscape, with houses leveled and others still standing but with their roofs ripped off.

In Santa Catarina, 37 towns and villages were ravaged, with more than 100 homes knocked away and many others had their roofs punctured by hail stones.

In the city of Sao Paulo, at least three people died when the storm caused homes and buildings to collapse, officials said.

Two of the fatalities were children, aged two and eight, crushed when their house collapsed in a mudslide, according to the state news agency Agencia Brasil. Rescuers were searching for three other children feared buried.

Heavy rain submerged 28 spots around Sao Paulo and brought traffic on normally congested roads nearly to a standstill.



Some suburban train and bus services were also suspended in Latin America's biggest metropolis, creating crowds of thousands of frustrated commuters.

Nearly half of all flights from Sao Paulo's main domestic airport were delayed -- some for up to seven hours -- and pilots were being forced to fly by instruments because of zero visibility.

In Paraguay, hail stones peppered roofs and damaged some 700 rural properties, the risk manager for the country's emergency service, Aldo Saldivar, told AFP.

The change in weather saw temperatures in the capital Asuncion suddenly plunge from 35 degrees Celsius to 12 degrees (95 degrees Fahrenheit to 54 degrees).

National weather forecast services in Brazil and Argentina said the rain would continue to Thursday.

quote:

Op woensdag 9 september 2009 11:13 schreef IkWilbert het volgende:

[..]

Eens, maar heel stiekem zou ik zoiets ook wel eens mee willen maken