Flood in the desert

The north of Chile is going through one of the hardest moments in a long time, because of the floods caused by the heaviest rains in 80 years. The worst situations are happening in Atacama region, where the towns were affected by overflow of the rivers that pass by the center of each town.

The effects of the disaster are catastrophic, whit more than 27.000 victims, thousands of houses destroyed and also at the moment 23 death people, number that could increase because there are also 53 missed people, number that day by day is increasing.

The disaster that is affecting the north of Chile is consequence of a long time of wrong urban planning. The organism responsible of organize the territory and where houses could be built didn´t consider that in the places where houses had been located, the river had get through some day and the possibility of a future overflow was high.  Not because this is one of the driest place in the world it means that it couldn´t happen again. 

Also the government’s reaction have been awful, showing that Onemi is most of the time useless, especially in hardest moments. The government should invest in emergency mechanism to prevent the people of situations like this in the north.

Whit some prevention the effects could be less than the reality that are leaving people in Atacama.

A lot of people affected have manifested the minimal attention that authorities have put on them and have shown their angry and desperation against government and local authorities protesting, being repressed by police, making all the ambient worst.

Many affected places haven’t get any help, victims are by their own going through all this hard time. It’s necessary that government improve the help to victims, so no one be left alone.