By CGTN’s Dan Collyns
Abnormally high sea temperatures have unleashed the worst heavy rains and floods in Peru in the past two decades. So far this year, officials say 84 people have been killed, 21 are missing, and more than 110,000 were left homeless. Authorities have closed schools as more than half the country is under a state of emergency.
Amid the destruction, though, is a story of hope. Images of Evangelina Chamorro, a woman who emerged from the mud and debris of an immense landslide, were seen around the world.
Chamorro was dragged three kilometers from her farm and survived by hanging onto branches and pieces of wood.
Evangelina Chamorro tries to survive amid landslide. /CGTN America
She spoke of her ordeal and how she almost gave up less than a week later, "The only thing I asked for, I remembered my two daughters who were in school, that my daughters would have to live without a mother or a father. That is what I asked. I said to God, 'Lord, give me strength to get out.' I thought of my two daughters. That is what I said."
Weeks of rains and floods have displaced more than 110,000 people, collapsed 150 bridges and left nearly 2,000 kilometers of roads unusable.
But throughout the destruction, Peru President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has called for calm, even sending text messages to every mobile phone user.
Meanwhile, the 78-year-old leader is visiting the areas worst-hit by the floods.
“What we have to do when this all ends is working out a proper plan to channel the rivers, at least where there are curves, so in the future they don’t overflow,” Kuczynski said.
While rains continue to batter the north of the country in the capital, the waters are subsiding and amid sandbags and rubble, life is beginning to get back to normal, although for some, living by the river may never be the same again.
The country has now begun the clean-up and reconstruction. But the misery continues as forecasters warn that flood may not let up until next month.
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