The rain does not stop, and neither does the havoc in the Buenos Aires suburbs.
Valentín Alsina, district of Lanús
, is, perhaps and at this time, the capital of the misfortunes resulting from the megastorm that has been going on for more than 24 hours without interruption.
Around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, a
14-year-old teenager
suffered an electric shock from a pole on Haiti Street between Membrillar and Carabobo.
He is in intensive care, stable and under observation, at the Evita Hospital.
This Tuesday, a few blocks away (three blocks) and a few hours before (ten), the body of a man floated through the flooded streets for hours until firefighters were able to remove it.
They are still trying to clarify the exact causes of the man's death, but they are settled between a possible lightning strike and the most possible electrocution.
This last possibility is the one that was accurate in the case of the teenager.
The boy was walking with his mother and another minor: he on the street, the other two on the sidewalk.
When the teenager wanted to get on the sidewalk, due to the flooding of the street, he leaned on a post.
As he did so,
a discharge struck him down.
It was the neighbors themselves who helped him, although they did not know them: according to what a neighbor couple told
TN
this Wednesday , apparently he had only been living in Valentín Alsina for three weeks.
Rodrigo Iglesias, one of those neighbors who helped him and who lives in the house in front of which the teenager collapsed, told what the situation was like after the electrocution: “I went over to perform Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) maneuvers on him, and We were like that for fifteen minutes.
When the SAME ambulance arrived, it caused a large wave of water and
we thought we would all be stuck together,
since the water is in contact with the pole that has power.”
“What we managed to do, when the wave formed, was raise the boy's head so that water wouldn't get into his mouth and he would drown.
In fact, some water got in and we could tell because he coughed.
He was breathing again,” Rodrigo continued.
Valentin Alsina, one of the towns most affected by the storm and floods.
Photo: Luciano Thieberger
The teenager was transferred to the General Interzonal Hospital of Agudos Evita, the municipal hospital of Lanús, where
he was admitted with secondary cardiac arrest as a result of the electrocution.
He is sedated and anesthetized, recovering, in stable condition although with a reserved prognosis.
It is a common image, at least in Valentín Alsina: it is the neighbors themselves who help and provide solutions.
While Rodrigo was talking to the TV reporter, a few meters away on the same block, a father and his daughter were sweeping the street with two dryers, clearing storm drains and drains, removing part of the mud that still covers the streets.
The girl, who could not attend classes due to suspension due to the flooding, helped her father, wearing rain boots as high as her knees.
“This is, in reality, shit that comes from the Riachuelo.
We always have to clean it, because it also comes out through a sewer on sunny days.
“This always happens, not just now, in this southeast,” the man told the chronicler.
In the surrounding area, tanneries, metal works and other industries dump their waste into the Riachuelo, which, when it overflows, fills the street with waste, sometimes toxic.
While the rain continues, residents try to clear the waterlogging and mark areas that are difficult to access.
The firefighters themselves had difficulty reaching the body of the man who was lying this Tuesday morning on the corner of Lun and La Habana.
After several hours, they were able to evacuate the body on foot, and with the help of a lifeguard, which was then taken to the 3rd Valentin Alsina police station.
The autopsy, requested by prosecutor María Silvia Bussano, is still trying to determine the precise cause of the man's death.
S.C.