Floods in Chile

This item appears on page 18 of the July 2008 issue.

In central and southern Chile, five months worth of rain fell in eight hours on May 22-23, causing floods that killed five people and displaced 15,000. There were mudslides, trees fell and at least seven rivers burst their banks. A bridge on the Pan American Highway, the main north-south route, was washed away, and trains were unable to travel south due to a collapsed bridge.