There were 17 emergency homes affected after the frontal system registered over the weekend in Ñuble, which were raised after the forest fires registered during February. This was reported from the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) and the Ñuble Presidential Delegation, who terminated the contract for these homes with Sodimac, the main supplier of the constructions.
This is due to the multiple problems suffered by the houses, which included water leaks and flooding after the rains, arrangements that will now be carried out by two external providers. The authorities are waiting for technical reports to analyze if the houses are only repaired or, definitively, they are completely dismantled to raise them again.
The regional director of Senapred, Gilda Grandón, confirmed the state of the affected homes, stressing that “the meteorological event that affected the Ñuble Region last weekend left 17 emergency homes affected by water leaks, also adding the electrical interruptions that at the time reached around 30,000 customers”.
For his part, the presidential delegate of Ñuble, Gabriel Pradenas, confirmed that they are already working with the suppliers in the affected homes, adding that “we are waiting for a report to be able to determine if the homes that were received can be repaired or if they are rightly dismantled and built again. In this sense, the houses that belonged to Sodimac were reassigned to other providers. We have made progress on these edges and the two decisions that were made were to redistribute the amount of emergency housing to a provider that has a better track record and the second attribute has to do with complementing the task of rebuilding homes with other providers.” On the other hand, he explained that the affected communes also made observations about the floor of the houses, in order to be considered in future houses that are implemented.
From the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism they assured that emergency housing is not within their competence, but that it is clearly up to the Delegation and Senapred to see these situations. In any case, the seremi of the area, Antonio Marchant, commented that the supplier companies “have built poorly and quickly, causing the problems we are having today. We know that in Quillón there are some more definitive problems, the mayor of has sent us some photos regarding these situations”.
Panorama in Quillon
Of the 17 affected homes, 16 are in the Quillón commune. Its mayor, Miguel Peña, commented that they hope to have an answer as soon as possible and assured that they will not receive more emergency housing until the issue of the apartment and the leaks are resolved. The community chief explained that “I was in situ over the weekend and it all rained and it was indeed a rain below the house itself. Over the weekend the presidential delegate was with Senapred and I told them that I was not going to receive the houses, because the floor does not correspond, if they do not change the floor and the roof they will not be received. We hope to have a prompt response from the authorities, because the families were completely disappointed.
The figures at the national level account for 79 affected emergency homes. The largest number of them are in Biobío, where some even had their roofs blown up.
