Carlos Guajardo
07/25/2020 - 13:40
- Clarín.com
- Society
"We have no water. And few houses have gas. Also, the animals are starving or because the weight of the snow does not allow them to walk. In some places there is a meter and a half. It is impossible to get there. It is a tremendous winter, ”the mayor of Cushamen, Ricardo Millahuala, told Clarín to describe the difficult situation that people in the cordillera and the central plateau of the province of Chubut are going through.
The communal chief provided another piece of information: “Of the 17 sites in the area, we have only been able to reach four. Among them Ñorquinco, Fofo Cahuel and El Tropezón. In the Ranguil Hua school there are 60 isolated people and until now it has not even been possible to get there with the Unimog of the Gendarmerie ”.
The situation is dramatic. Because there are people who run out of firewood and cannot heat themselves. And in general they are older people, some with mobility difficulties.
Cushamen has 3,000 inhabitants, of which 1,800 live in the urban area. The rest is in the places that, in general, are hoofs of stay with some precarious little houses around.
Heavy snowfalls complicate the towns of the South.
Luis Aguilera, director of municipal affairs for the government, is also in the area. “We cannot get there because in some places the snow froze, making it very difficult to open roads. The people of Provincial Roads make all efforts. We do not have good communication with the inhabitants who are isolated. But we are doing what we can to get there with firewood and food, ”he assured.
As Clarín could know , people “melt snow” in order to have water. The situation is the harshest in the past two decades. And the but: it was announced that the snowfall will continue, at least, next week.
Cushamen is 650 kilometers from Rawson and 180 from Esquel. You enter via route 35, which is very complicated: more than a meter of snow. Aboriginal communities also live in that area. The hospital ran out of gas and only attends emergencies.
A view of the Chuitubense plain, of blanvo.
Ricardo Rojas, a rural town of 340 inhabitants in the south of the province, is without power, telephone signal and drinking water. The communal head of the town, Néstor Villegas, stated that the reasons for the interruption of the electricity supply are “unknown”.
In that area, in the early hours of Friday temperatures of 17 and 24 degrees below zero were recorded.
In many places in Patagonia they suffered power cuts due to the fall of at least 55 pylons, due to an effect called “galloping”. It occurs when strong winds, heavy snowfalls and low temperatures combine. This caused prolonged power cuts in the mountains and the plateau; and this Saturday some localities have not yet recovered it.
"We are concerned about people. But also for animals. We don't know how many we will find dead when the snow falls. And it is the livelihood of the people who live in these places, "said Saturnino Antinao, deputy chief of government of Cushamen.
In many areas the snow reaches a meter and a half high: they fear finding many dead animals when it descends.
For now, there is enough fuel, which in the midst of the difficult situation is a relief. At the moment there have been no reports of people with health problems. But the situation tends to worsen in the coming days.
The snow that in some places represents a reason for fun and joy, in others causes serious inconvenience. They are the two faces of the same climatic phenomenon.
Chubut. Correspondent.