Hotel collapses into river after heavy rain, Peru
A 50-room, colonial-era hotel collapsed on January 26, 2017 into the Sicra River in the Peruvian town of Lircay after heavy rains hit the region. All guests were evacuated before the collapse and there were no reports of injuries.
According to Civil Defense authorities, heavy rains started on Wednesday afternoon, January 25 and did not stop for 10 straight hours, eroding the river edge and the foundations of the three-story tourist hotel La Hacienda.
Video courtesy Global News
On the same day, a violent mudslide occurred on the Panamerican Sur Highway in Arequipa region, killing three people. The slide occurred after heavy rains dislodged rocks and earth on a mountain in Arequipa region. Disturbing footage shows the mudslide sweeping away a small car and crashing it into a truck. The driver and two passengers were killed. Several vehicles on the same stretch of the highway were left trapped in up to a meter of mud and rocks, local media reported.
Reuters reported that several projects under construction in the town, located in the Huancavelica region, have also been destroyed due to constant rainfall. Damages to other houses, located in the neighborhoods of Pueblo Nuevo and Bellavista, were also reported, with floods in Bellavista affecting the most families, local media reported.
Floods were also reported in other parts of the city. Thirty homes were flooded and roads were blocked by landslides.
In a preliminary damage assessment released January 26, Peru's National Institute of Civil Defence (INDECI) said that damage caused by heavy rains nationwide have so far left 28 245 people affected.
Nationwide, 103 homes collapsed as a result of heavy rain, floods and landslides, 192 are inhabitable and 7 123 affected. Several rivers burst their banks.
The National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology reported that heavy rains will continue and will increase in the coming months, until April, affecting the center and south of the country.
Featured image: Hotel collapses into Sicra River, Peru on January 26, 2016.
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