For just over an hour, Chillán was affected by intense rain, thunder and winds that hit the urban area last Sunday. A total of 16 millimeters that fell in just 45 minutes and were added to the 33 millimeters that fell during the day, a meteorological event that resulted in flooding, affected homes and commercial premises.
Faced with this situation, the municipal Emergency, Dideco and Public Security teams immediately began to channel municipal aid to around 80 affected homes, by delivering a total of 2,600 sandbags (sometimes accompanied by charcoal and chlorine). The Municipal Emergency crews began their deployment at 4 in the morning, where flooding situations had already been recorded.
This Sunday, Mayor Camilo Benavente instructed a wide municipal deployment to serve the most affected sectors, such as Nuevo Amanecer, Callejón Bustamante, Callejón Arias, Boyén, Villa Iraira and towns Wicker, Mardones, Brisas de Oriente, Sarita Gajardo, Nueva Río Viejo and Doña Francisca, among others.
“Immediately, upon noticing the heavy rains, we began a deployment of several coordinated municipal directorates to deliver assistance quickly and in a timely manner to the affected families, concentrating efforts in the eastern sector, since the urban plan is the one that was more affected this time,” said the mayor.
The municipal administrator, Richard Guzmán, coordinated the efforts to assist the families. “At around 2:00 p.m. we had a large amount of water that affected the urban area; commercial premises, streets and homes. “The emergency, Dideco and Security teams were immediately mobilized to assist the affected families, especially older adults and children.”
On Central Panificadores Street, due to a structural situation, it flooded, flooding a total of 10 homes, a situation that forced the street to be closed from Los Puelches, while municipal teams delivered the corresponding aid to each home. The neighbor of the sector, Andrea Alarcón, appreciated the help. “They made sure to see the situation in each flooded home, where the majority are elderly,” she said.
After the frontal system, the Nelson Oyarzún Municipal Stadium was enabled as a shelter and the Public Security and Municipal Inspection contact was available as an emergency number (42 2 433 308) along with the Dideco contact for problems related to housing (+569 92808778). .
The director of Dideco, Zoraya Martínez, expressed that since it started to rain, different municipal teams began to respond to as many as possible of the nearly 200 calls received, trying to provide response, containment and support. At the close of this edition they had managed to serve more than 120 families.
“We enabled all the emergency teams, we organized ourselves and began to work on the ground assisting the families and trying to help them. The emergency collapsed gutters, patios and some clandestine landfills that came to light, as well as private construction that affected the homes of other neighbors, especially in Rosita O’Higgins, Sarita Gajardo, Población Wicker,” he indicated.
