Peru’s president orders increased relief to flood areas

Brunei.fm via Nam News Network: Peru’s President Alan Garcia Perez has ordered increase emergency relief to people in Cusco, Puno and other Andean areas recently hit by floods following torrential rains. After a working meeting with government officials over the weekend at the Government Palace in here, he announced that he will visit the flooded areas to provide humanitarian aid and assist in reconstruction efforts.

Finance Minister Mercedes Araoz and the Technical Secretary of the Inter-ministerial Committee for Social Affairs, Virginia Borra were among top officials who attended the meeting. Borra is currently on her way to Cusco to deliver humanitarian aid (food and medicine) for the victims.

In Puno, the chief of the Joint Command of the Peruvian Armed Forces, General Francisco Contreras ordered an airlift operation to rescue people who were stranded after heavy rains flooded different areas in Puno region, in southeastern Peru over the weekend . Gen. Contreras said that dozens of families affected by heavy rains that caused rivers to flood in Puno and Abancay regions are being evacuated to safe areas.

Torrential rains raised the water level in rivers across the Puno region, isolating many rural communities who had to be evacuated by helicopter. Over the weekend General Contreras accompanied Prime Minister Velasquez Quesquen visited Puno, where heavy rains also destroyed many hectares of agricultural land.

Meanwhile in Lima, to monitor the weather in flood-stricken Machu Picchu and the surroundings areas of Cusco, Peru’s National Meteorology and Hydrology Institute (Senamhi) purchased six weather stations, the head of the institute Wilar Gamarra said….

The port in Puno, Peru, part of the region that is now flooded, shot by Alfredobi