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| Situation Update No. 8 Ref.no.: FF-20100126-24697-PER
Situation Update No. 8
On 2010-01-27 at 20:01:01 [UTC]
Event: Flash Flood
Location: Peru Urubamba Valley Machu Picchu
Number of Deads: 7 person(s)
Number of Evacuated: 1950 person(s)
Situation: While tourists stranded at the affected the the Cusco are having a hard time waiting to be rescued, local residents are also facing their own drama: the flood has swept away houses, crops, cattle, roads, leaving thousands of people only with the clothes they had on. 10,000 affected residents and more than 2,000 collapsed houses are the official figures at present, registered during the last 10 days in the province of Urubamba, Cusco. In Urubamba, Vilcanota river has increased if normal volume from 600m3 per second (the normal range in rainy seasons) to 1,100m3 per second, which explains the proportions of the damage; it is completely covering the main road to the area, isolating the district of Yucay. Phone and twitter reports from local residents to LivinginPeru state that the river has broadened its width almost 10metres per side, and has increased its height levels between two and three meters: this has caused many local residents houses to collapse, and the police station has also been swept away. But Urubamba valley, on the route to Machu Picchu, concentrates also many luxury hotels and spas, many of which are currently flooded or fighting against the flood. Cusco's Regional president, Hugo Gonzales Sayán, reported that Machu Picchu electric central has stopped working because two power lines have fallen down. He also reported that Yanacocha lagoon, in the Urubamba highlands, is starting to overflow, endangering specially the Urubamba sector known as Huayucari. |  | | | |
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