The inhabitants of the La Olla neighborhood, in the city of
Corrientes
, began this Tuesday with the cleaning and disinfection work of their houses after the flooding they suffered on Sunday due to an extraordinary rainfall of more than 300 millimeters.
From very early on, in the internal streets of the settlement, mounds of furniture, clothes and mattresses began to be seen that were rendered useless by water and mud.
Inside the houses the
smell of humidity invades everything
.
An old industrial fan is trying to dissipate that stench that took over the walls and furniture as soon as the water receded on Monday afternoon, but the task will take days, perhaps weeks, confesses Manuel Casco, a tough Chaco native who makes a living from cardboard.
Everyone knows Manuel in the neighborhood as “Pini”.
He is one of the many who preferred
to stay inside his house, despite the 80 centimeters of muddy water
that poured in early Sunday morning.
“We are flooded many times, but never like this,” he confesses.
“Now we have to start taking the clothes, mattresses, beds and furniture out into the sun and see what is saved,” he said, while preparing food for the pigs he has in a small pigsty in the backyard.
Almost a dozen small piglets frolic in the mud.
“On the day of the flood I lifted the pig in one of the cars in which I go out to carry cardboard and
we put the piglets on top of a refrigerator
.
On Sunday they couldn't breastfeed, so we fed them powdered milk.
Only yesterday, when the water went down, were they able to meet their mother again.”
A long rope full of freshly washed clothes crosses the patio that is still full of mud.
Inside the house everything is now clean, but there are still too many wet things.
“We had to go out and buy bleach and all the things to disinfect the house because they didn't bring anything,” she laments.
The La Olla neighborhood, the most affected by the flood in Corrientes.
This Tuesday the neighbors began to return and see what belongings they could rescue.
Manuel is a militant of the Unemployed Workers Movement (MTD).
He is a member of the piqueteros' cooperative, where
they pay him just 40% of what a kilo of paper is worth
in the market.
“No leader appeared to give us a hand.
They came for a while with a canoe to take out some people and just take photos,” he complained.
And he acknowledged that he no longer fears losing the Empower Work that he accessed through the social movement.
“Here in the neighborhood there are about 60 car drivers who do this work.
And
the MTD gave no one a hand
.
I had to go with my car to get some neighbors out when the water came in,” he revealed.
The cartonero points to the back shed, where the water ruined an entire week's effort.
Hundreds of kilos of cardboard were left unusable.
“We have to see if I can save at least those who were higher up,” he is sincere.
Manuel Casco lives in La Olla and this Tuesday he began the process of cleaning his house after the water hit.
The sun came out a couple of hours ago but there is almost no movement in La Olla.
Suddenly the tiny figure of Ofelia Ojeda (57) appears at the gate of her house, broom in hand.
The woman, who lives alone with her four dogs, has already finished cleaning but she still has to wash the clothes and dry the mattress.
“I have lived here for 25 years and
this has never happened to me
.
I had to seek refuge in a neighbor's house, which raised his land almost 70 centimeters.
I spent Sunday night there because I was afraid that they would break into it.
I gave the jug and other things to another neighbor to take care of,” she says honestly.
Ofelia lives off the little merchandise that comes to her through a Pentecostal church and what she gets by washing and ironing clothes.
“She's barely enough for me, but I'm not complaining,” she says.
The day after the floods in Corrientes.
In the patio of his house, where plants abound and everything shines after the passage of the flood, is his old refrigerator.
“It wasn't running well anymore, it was barely cooling, and a boy from the neighborhood told me that the engine had to be changed.
Since I don't have money, I gave it to him,” he said.
From now on it will be another lack in Ofelia's life.
“My chickens were up the tree from Sunday at dawn until Monday afternoon, when the water went down.
When I came back here there was a lot of mud with a very bad smell.
Luckily a neighbor gave me products to disinfect everything and now it's better,” she added.
Mariano Coutiño has it more difficult.
In addition to the cleaning and disinfection of his house in La Olla, the
reconstruction of a wall
that was hit by a tree branch that fell off during the storm must be added.
“My wife and my three children are at School 275. They will return when this is in a condition to be inhabited again,” says Mariano, who is also a beneficiary of the Empower Work plan that he receives for keeping the streets of the settlement clean.
In a few hours, 300 mm of water fell, leaving a large part of the city flooded.
Juan Alberto Romero (53) looks over the mess that the water left inside his house.
He still doesn't know where to start the cleanup.
His wife, Ramona, can contribute little because her diabetes left her blind.
“We lost everything.
We need help to start over,”
Juan admits with his eyes lost in the muddy street of the neighborhood he has lived in for more than two decades.
This Tuesday there were still more than 300 people evacuated in schools and community centers.
The Government estimates that between tomorrow and Thursday everyone will return to their homes.
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