A man was found dead on Tuesday following heavy storms and flooding in Buenos Aires and its surroundings.
The downpour, which began on Sunday and intensified heavily Monday overnight, caused flight delays, stalled traffic and public transport, prevented business from opening and left hundreds of cars underwater in flooded areas. Storms peaked at around 6am.
Rainfall will continue throughout the week, warned weather experts, with authorities calling on locals to take care.
Fabián García, the director of Buenos Aires’ Civil Defence force confirmed to AFP that a middle-aged man’s corpse had been found on the outskirts of the city.
Efforts were underway to take the body away. The force of the water was hampering rescue efforts, keeping the corpse out of reach, said García.
The corpse was found floating at the intersection of La Habana and Coronel Luna streets in the town of Valentín Alsina, Lanús, on the outskirts of the capital.
Images of the deceased man began to circulate on Tuesday morning on social media. Residents in the local area alerted the authorities to the video.
"There is a dead man lying in the street outside my house in Valentín Alsina. Nobody comes to see, it's urgent, it looks like a person who was going to work on a normal day," reported a user on X using the account @cattleyapurpura.
Amid heavy thunderstorms, an emergency warning was issued for the nation’s capital and nearby air traffic, with delays to flights at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery and Ezeiza International airports.
Security precautions were lifted by 11am local time, a spokesman for the airports' management company confirmed.
Public transport systems were snarled with delays, with trains and buses running at reduced speed and frequency. Trains ran at reduced frequency and at a reduced speed. Some services were cancelled entirely.
Images published in local media outlets and on social media showed streets flooded with rainwater and fallen trees. Shops were inundated with water, with some areas suffering power outages.
One clip circulating online showed a local resident moving through a flooded area on a kayak.
The storms began on Sunday night and, according to weather experts at the National Meteorological Service, will last until Thursday.
The Buenos Aires City government reported that more than 125 millimetres of rain had fallen by Tuesday by mid-morning, a 30-year record and 20 millimetres more than the average forecast for the whole month of March. Further storms followed throughout the day.
– TIMES/AFP/PERFIL
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