Five days on from tragedy, Milei travels to storm-hit Bahía Blanca

Five days on from the tragedy that swept through the port city, President Javier Milei travelled Wednesday to Bahía Blanca, southern Buenos Aires Province, to oversee reconstruction and rescue operations.

Heavy storms and dangerous flooding last Friday left 16 people dead in the port city. Around a hundred remain missing, including two young sisters aged one and five.

Milei’s visit was intended to monitor reconstruction work in the city, which was left devastated by the unprecedented storm. He also spoke with members of the emergency services to see how their operations are progressing.

The President’s office did not release details of the trip prior to his departure in a bid to head off protests from residents.

Milei and his sister, Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei, were insulted by some locals as they visited a temporary military bridge installed to cross the Maldonado Canal.

In a video shared online, an individual off-screen berates the Milei siblings and Defence Minister Luis Petri, accusing them of only “coming here for the photo-op” and demands greater assistance.

Petri, along with Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, have also been abused by local residents during recent visits.

Search for survivors

Rescuers are still searching for the whereabouts of two young children who were swept away from a vehicle by the current. Their mother, who survived, and a person who tried to help them, whose body was found Sunday, were also caught up in the tragedy.

Another 94 people are also being sought, Bahia Blanca's Attorney General Juan Pablo Fernández said Monday in a radio interview. “It is likely that there are more dead,” he admitted.

Meanwhile, local judicial authorities have received dozens of reports of robberies, looted shops and the ransacking of temporarily unoccupied homes.

“We had 17 people arrested,” Fernández revealed, though he said the system for filing complaints is limited because “the police stations were flooded.”

Volunteers have descended on the area to help rescue and recovery efforts.

A “train of solidarity” carrying tons of food, clothes and toiletries arrived in Bahía Blanca on Wednesday with donations collected at various stops along the 600-kilometre route it travelled from Buenos Aires City.

More than 4,000 volunteers joined a call from the local mayor's office to help with the distribution of donations and clean-up work.

Classes at schools remain suspended until further notice. Half of the 200 schools surveyed were damaged, the mayor's office said, with more than 20 thought to be unusable.

Collapse

Last Friday's fierce storm caused drainage channels to collapse. In just hours, the rainfall was double the historical annual average.

The water flooded the city’s main hospital which had to be evacuated in the early hours of the morning by the nurses. 

The water also tore up bridges, broke roads and swept away everything in its path, leaving cars piled up and houses destroyed. More than 1,000 people were evacuated, some 370 of whom are still temporarily housed at relief centres.

The Army has set up tactical bridges to reconnect parts of the city.

Bahía Blanca Mayor Federico Susbielles estimates that some US$400 million will be needed for reconstruction.

“More than 70 percent of the people of Bahia suffered serious damage,” he said on Monday.

President Javier Milei’s national government has authorised the release of funds equivalent to US$9.2 million.

Local authorities say this is insufficient. Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof, a fierce critic of Milei, said Tuesday that the funding fell “short.” 

He asked Milei that “a part” of the new debt that Argentina is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund be earmarked for Bahía Blanca and its reconstruction.

“‘Since we are talking about a new agreement with the IMF, I hope that a portion of that credit will be used for issues like this, and not for gambling or financial speculation,” said Kicillof.

He also asked Milei for an urgent meeting in order to solve issues related to reconstruction.

Differentiating himself from the national government’s stance, the governor described the storm that hit the city as “neither a biblical punishment nor a horror movie, but a product of climate change.”

“An event like this has to be foreseen as much as possible and we have to be prepared,” Kicillof said at a press conference in Bahía Blanca.

– TIMES/AFP/NA