Heavy storms pounding a large swath of Chile have resulted in 13 fatalities and seven people still missing, according to officials who spoke Tuesday. The Chilean government also announced plans to pursue sanctions against power companies that have been slow to restore electricity to affected customers.
The severe weather has swept through areas from the country’s central zone all the way down to its southern regions, triggering major flooding, forcing road closures, and causing significant damage to residential properties.
Alicia Cebrian, the director of Chile’s Senapred emergency management agency, warned that the danger is far from over. “Waterways, streams, and riverbanks have been weakened by the rainfall over the past few days; there is still a risk of rising water levels in some of them,” she said.
Cebrian also outlined the broader toll of the disaster: more than 2,281 residents have been forced from their homes, 81 houses have been completely destroyed, and an additional 2,761 have suffered serious structural damage. As of Tuesday, roughly 87,000 people were still without power.
Interior Minister Claudio Alvarado announced that the government intends to launch formal disciplinary proceedings against electricity distribution companies for their failure to restore service in a timely manner.
School classes were canceled across multiple municipalities spanning four different regions of the country.
While the majority of Chile’s major copper and lithium mining operations are concentrated in the far north — an area that has largely escaped the storm’s impact — some mining activity in the affected regions has been temporarily scaled back due to the difficult conditions.
