Uruguay Floods Displace Thousands

More than 4,700 people are displaced from their homes in Uruguay due to flooding in various parts of the country after severe storms, gusts of strong winds and heavy rains, the Uruguayan crisis management agency reported.

"So far, 4,722 people remain displaced," reported the National Emergency System (Sinae), which detailed that 995 were evacuated to reception centers and 3,727 self-evacuated in the homes of family and friends.

Nine of the country's 19 departments have people outside their homes after the red alert for adverse meteorological events that was in effect  in much of the territory.

Florida and San José, in the south-central part of the country, are the most affected, with 1,995 and 1,298 displaced people, respectively.

"Florida is the most complicated department," said President Luis Lacalle Pou when touring the affected areas together with the national emergency director, Santiago Caramés.

In Florida, the persistence of rain caused the Santa Lucía Chico River to rise, which reached 10.67 meters. The supply of drinking water was also suspended there, since the state-owned OSE plant was out of service.

Sinae said there were 29 road closures across the country, and almost 43,000 customers of the state electricity company UTE were still without power, after a peak of 116,000 affected in the early hours of the morning.

The National Institute of Meteorology (Inumet) reported the maximum wind gusts, of up to 137 kilometers per hour, in the northern department of Tacuarembó, bordering Brazil. In neighboring Salto, bordering Argentina, the winds reached 105 km/h.

On the other hand, precipitation volumes of between 121 and 154 millimeters were recorded.