Powerful winter storm strands more than 400 people near the Argentina-Chile border
Image credit: NOAA/GOES-East, Zoom Earth, The Watchers
A powerful winter storm stranded more than 300 vehicles in the Andes mountains near the Argentina-Chile border on July 9, 2022. The Los Libertadores border crossing was later shut down by authorities.
The total number of stranded people, including tourists and truckers, exceeded 400 over the weekend, local officials said.
120 people were rescued early in the day on the Argentinian side of the border, but another 200 remained stranded at an altitude of more than 3 000 m (9 842 feet) due to the hostile weather.1
More than 200 people are also still stranded on the Chilean side, police officer Hector Castro told Chilean media.
The temperatures in the region are dropping to -10 °C (14 °F) as the polar cold blast continues affecting the region.
References:
1 Blizzard prompts evacuations in Andes mountains – AFP – July 11, 2022
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
