Tragedy in Argentina: storms leave 13 dead and destruction in Bahía Blanca

At least 13 people died in the Argentine town of Bahía Blanca (Buenos Aires province) when the roof of a sports hall collapsed. due to storms that hit the area, official sources reported late this Saturday.

The deceased were at the Bahiense del Norte Club at a skate festival when the roof collapsed. The municipality reported that the injured people were referred to the Municipal Hospital, which is located near the club. He also reported that “no intense phenomena are expected but the presence of intermittent rains is still expected until Sunday morning.” That is, in principle a new storm should not occur in the next few hours.

The mayor asked the population to “take extreme care and not travel on public roads.” And he expressed that Club Estrella, Club Olimpo and Dow Center function as evacuee centers, since dozens of people were forced to leave their homes. The storm, in addition to the damage to the electrical system, left enormous difficulties for transportation due to branches, trees, signs, poles and other types of infrastructure that fell on the streets and are not easy to remove.

The energy company EDES Sociedad Anónima, which supplies the city, stated that “serious damage has occurred to the networks that distribute electrical energy” in the city and warned that the service recovery operation “can only begin when the weather conditions are normalized.”

The National Meteorological Service (SMN) had issued the orange alert not only for the city of Bahía Blanca, but also for Monte Hermoso, Coronel Dorrego, Coronel Rosales and Pehuén-Có, among others. In all these cities the storm hit hard. The SMN stated that starting Sunday morning there will be storms in the AMBA, which will extend, at least,