Flooding and destruction hit the port city of Bahía Blanca early Friday morning, sparking the evacuation of families and newborns from a neonatal unit.
Six people died and hundreds were evacuated day as torrential rains flooded homes and hospitals, destroyed roads and forced authorities to cut the power.
Eight hours of nonstop rain left the city of 350,000 people largely under water, and forced authorities to evacuate the Jose Penna hospital.
Television images showed medical personnel evacuating babies from the hospital's neonatal unit, and the army was deployed to assist in rescue efforts.
Some 1,000 people were evacuated to safety in the city about 600 kilometres (about 375 miles) south of the capital Buenos Aires.
Municipal officials said six people were confirmed to have died, but the toll could still rise.
The city received more than 400 millimetres of rain in just hours – equivalent to what it normally gets in a year, "something unprecedented," according to Buenos Aires Province Security Minister Javier Alonso.
"The biggest storm in Bahia Blanca was in 1930, with 175 millimetres. This is almost three times bigger," said Alonso.
Bahía Blanca's airport was closed until further notice, and officials cut off part of the power supply to reduce the risk of electric shocks.
The provincial government said it was sending helicopters, canoes, ambulances and trucks bearing food, water and equipment to the stricken city.
The coast guard was assisting in the rescue with inflatable boats.
"It was raining, and suddenly we saw the street was flooded. About a meter-and-a-half of water came into my house," Flavia Viera Romero, who rescued her children from the deluge, told the LN+ channel.
The city remains on alert from the meteorological service for new storms.
Bahía Blanca has a sad history of climatic catastrophes. The last deadly one struck in December 2023 when a windstorm left 13 dead, houses collapsed and caused great damage to infrastructure with multi-million-dollar losses.
– TIMES/AFP/NA
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