Argentina – More than a meter of snow

Residents isolated. No electricity, no gas, no firewood, no clean water, and 20 degrees below zero.

24 June 2017 – Northeast of Rio Negro is a plateau some 1000 km (600 miles) long, dotted with a few villages that seem to live in another time. Here in the last ten days it snowed a meter (39 inches) of snow. More than 200 families were isolated. No electricity, gas, firewood or clean water.

Temperatures dropped to minus 20 degrees. And the outlook is not good, with forecasts calling for more snow, rain and cold as a glacier in coming days.

The government of Río Negro, along with municipalities, Volunteer Firefighters and Civil Defense, organized a rescue operation to cover the needs of about 250 families living in very isolated places.

The people here remember the great snowfall of 1984, which took 95% of the animals of the desert region of Rio Negro. Somehow, the residents recovered.

They also remember that before the Puyehue volcano erupted in 2011, there were 710,000 cattle in the Comallo area alone. Then the ashes came. By January 2012 only 60,000 animals survived.

“With the ashes the sheep were feeding and in a while they exploded in blood like balloons. It was because they ate the material of the volcano that was pure glass, “recalls Ramiro Hermosilla, born and raised in the locality.

Again, the inhabitants of northern Patagonia rose to the challenge. Little by little their herds have increased. Today in the vicinity of Comallo graze 200 thousand animals. But the South Line again is going through a critical period.

(Note: I have taken great liberties with my translation. You may want to read the original articles for yourself.)

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Thanks to Argriris Diamantis for these links

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June 26, 2017 at 07:23PM