Freak torrential rains swamped the coastal Atacama Desert Tuesday, causing mudslides that swept homes and vehicles into the sea and killing at least 41 people and injuring hundreds, authorities said.
Witnesses in the Pacific port of Antofagasta, situated on the edge of the desert and about 800 miles north of Santiago, said the downpour began at 1:20 a.m. and lasted more than four hours, deluging a city that had not had even a light shower since 1986.The rains caused a wall of mudslides that swept loose sand from the higher-altitude desert hills through the settlements of Antofagasta toward the Pacific Ocean, leveling houses in its path and sweeping cars with passengers into the sea, the witnesses said.
The rain also flooded and burst drinking water tanks, worsening the floods, they said.
The sun had returned by midday, but the city of 200,000 people remained in chaos from the storm, with streets choked by overturned cars and mud, the witnesses said. Electricity and telephone service were cut, and schools and nearly all businesses and industries were closed.