Three million liters of water, submerged cars and avenues turned into a lagoon: the last big rain that hit Lima

The weather forecast for the senamhi for the next few days and the sudden rain recorded this Tuesday, March 10 in various neighborhoods of Lima – due to the indirect influence of the Cyclone Yaku– They put the population in suspense, fearing a repetition of the tragedy experienced on January 15, 1970, when a deluge hit the capital and left enormous damage in its wake.

Journalistic notes from the time give an account of the destruction left by this precipitation: one dead, more than a dozen injured, hundreds of victims, two thousand damaged houses, mudslides, floods and even fires. It is not for nothing that he is considered one of the heavier rains of the last century, with a duration of at least 30 hours and millions of liters of water spilled on the ground of Lima.

The avenues transformed into lagoons, the streets transformed into swimming pools, the submerged cars and the motorists obliged to swim out show the severity of the 1970 rain. newspaper articles Trade They point out that every square meter of Lima was flooded with 17 liters of water in the first five hours alone, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., of that fateful January 15.

The event is assigned to a clouds mattress 1,300 meters thick which rejected three million liters of water during the collision with the coastal climate. There 70s rain It was such that it reached Huaral to the north, Pisco to the south, and La Oroya to the east.

There precipitation it is the source of flood waters which were later transformed into swimming pools. The first fires broke out because of short circuits and walls collapsed in the most slum areas of the capital. The road between Lima and Chosica was blocked by huaicos and the houses of Ñaña invaded by water. There was no place to take refuge.

The armed forces mobilized dozens of trucks with soldiers to help the victims. In Miraflores, Magdalena and La Victoria, electricity was cut off. At midnight, the firefighters had already attended more than a hundred emergency.

The hours passed, the despair increased from the enormous quantity which flooded Lima, while, in Collique, Cabat Ballon Torresa 19-year-old mechanic, lost his life after being electrocuted while trying to close a water filtration. In downtown Lima, a firefighter fell from a height of seven meters trying to put out a fire caused by a short circuit.

On the outskirts the Rimac, Chilca and Chillon rivers they overflowed and destroyed the fragile houses built on its banks. A lot of victims They spent the night outside. Six houses in the Huascarán district, near the Pont de la Armée, were swept away by the river. And, on Morales Duárez Avenue, the adobe and thatch houses have collapsed.

At the intersection of Arequipa and Javier Prado avenues, so much rain was concentrated that a small lagoon formed. The cars were immersed in the water They reached three meters high. Seeing their engines cut, the drivers had to swim to save their lives.