Floods in Uruguay: impressive images of Montevideo under water after heavy rains

Uruguay lived in the last intense intense hours throughout the country that generated surprising floods in Montevideo and Canelones, affected thousands of users of the electrical system, Power Plants and State Electric Transmissions (UTE), and left flooded streets and affected cars and houses.

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Sergio Rico, national director of the National Emergency System (Sinae) told El País that the heavy rains have mainly affected Montevideo and Canelones.

The Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (Inumet) updated the orange and yellow alert until noon due to strong storms and heavy rains. According to Inumet, between 50 and 100 mm were recorded in Montevideo and between 50 and 120 mm in Canelones, “the rains being more intense between 5 and 7 hours.”

Floods in Uruguay. The Country/GDA

The director of the Coordinating Center for Departmental Emergencies (Cecoed) of Montevideo, Jorge Cuello, faced criticism of the local government this afternoon for the floods. “No, it’s not a maintenance issue. It is more of a nature problem,” he told a news conference. “Nature sometimes gives us and punishes us, as it happens in all parts of the world, not only in Montevideo,” he added.

“I can say that the amount of water that fell has not occurred for many years.” “More than it rains in a month it rained in a few hours, it is also something important to see,” he said.

UTE so far has not reported at what time it will restore the affected services, which total about 24,000 throughout the country.

Floods in Uruguay. The Country/GDA

In the capital, Malvín was one of the most affected neighborhoods with streets cut off by heavy rains. Concepción del Uruguay was one of the main arteries affected. In addition, there are some 3,000 affected customers in La Teja, and some 1,700 in Belvedere, Tres Ombúes and Punta de Rieles, with some 1,700 users without electricity, respectively. Other affected areas are Prado, Buceo and Carrasco. In Montevideo, there are about 14,500 services affected.

“Due to the intense rains that have been recorded in the last few hours, floods have been detected in different areas of the city,” reported the Municipality of Montevideo (IMM) on social networks. Crews have been working since dawn, just as “all their resources have been made available to deal with an unprecedented issue,” added the capital’s commune.

On the other hand, in Canelones, several flooded streets were also registered and there are about 2,900 homes without electricity, a similar figure in Maldonado.

Floods in Uruguay. The Country/GDA

A complicated fortnight

The head of Inumet forecasts, Néstor Santayana, stressed that the worst in terms of rains for the south and east of the country has already passed this day. Now, the most intense rains began to affect the center, east and north of the country, and looking at the next few days “it is expected that the week will be unstable at least in the first seven-ten days of this second fortnight, where there will be to continue giving events of precipitations and storms, some strong, that are going to affect different zones of the country in the course of the week”.

Santayana stressed that the monthly climatic average is between 100-130 mm, so that between 5 and 7 mainly “the monthly measurement precipitated”, which were associated with heavy rains and storms.

Floods in Uruguay. The Country/GDA

The specialist indicated that Montevideo experienced a phenomenon of these characteristics twice in almost a decade. A similar event in the capital occurred on December 26, 2014 and another on March 18, 2018, he said.

These phenomena are more frequent in summer due to the “combination of high temperatures, increased humidity and atmospheric instability”, although he pointed out that they are not “exclusive” to the summer season, but can happen throughout the year.

“It is a situation in conditions that are quite similar to what happened in the city of Canelones and in Piriápolis days ago”, where there were high temperature conditions, which when humidity increased, which is “favorable in itself to destabilize the atmosphere, and to develop rains and punctual storms of rapid development that have the potential to generate intense precipitation in very short periods of time, as well as leave hail and gusts associated with storms,” he said.

Floods in Uruguay. The Country/GDA

in the networks

Users on social networks recorded heavy flooding, with vehicles totally or partially submerged in several streets, where the word “Venice” even became a trend, due to humorous comparisons by some people.

Residents of the Malvín area send us this video. Unfortunately, despite paying very expensive taxes, cleaning to prevent this type of flooding never existed. And then they want to put MVD in debt for 25 years to buy trucks and containers. pic.twitter.com/PxUiOxNRRJ

— Diego Rodríguez (@Diego__RS) January 17, 2022

The Antel Arena looks like Venice, what we will surely not see is the neighbors protesting even if they lose everything due to the water. pic.twitter.com/fYIDBP3AON

— Walter Miguel (@WalterM85410630) January 17, 2022

Venice? Montevideo… Conception of Uruguay pic.twitter.com/BLalSRmjhm

– Agustín Basso (@AgustinBasso_) January 17, 2022

RIO BRANCO TERMINAL INSTEAD OF BUSES, BOATS DEPART pic.twitter.com/ulQXnPrj9u

— Hector (@ManeiHector) January 17, 2022

Fire Malvin who is leaving… pic.twitter.com/TbMH1So38E

— Rocky Vaenbola (@vaenbola) January 17, 2022

Montevideo #Flooded pic.twitter.com/ZvipE3ndN4

— nano gamio (@nanogamio) January 17, 2022

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