Tuesday, December 29th 2015. This Saturday morning, strong snowstorms and tornados South of USA were reported; leaving at least 20 dead, several wounded, trashed cars and completely or partially collapsed houses in its wake, around Dallas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.
The situation turned worse after six in the afternoon of that same day, when a series of tornadoes crossed the center of the country; increasing the number of deaths to over 40. The most affected communities were in Garland, where eight people died in a traffic accident after 12 cars collided due to the strong storms; nearly 600 houses destroyed and 60 people wounded.
Garland’s PD Spokesman, Pero Barineau, stated in press conference that this was a total destruction one day after Christmas and an awful scene to witness. Albeit there aren’t yet any missing people reports, authorities are keeping a search program among the rubble in order to make sure nobody was left trapped and to avoid more human losses.
Meteorologists in charge of the pertinent research claim that the tornado that hit Garland was quite violent and has been classified as a rank EF4, within a six level scale in which EF5 is the most serious; with winds of over 320 Km/h.
The most recent territory to be visited by the chain of storms was Texas, where 18 people died tragically; while in Illinois and Missouri, 11 people died due to the floods caused by the intense and prolonged rains. The exact number of tornadoes that affected USA is not yet known, but authorities issued around 40 tornado alarms on Saturday night alone.
On the other hand, northern areas in Mexico were also affected by the climatic phenomenon that does not seem to want to leave the American continent alone. Around 32 municipalities in Mexico’s border with USA were affected by terrible snowstorms that went as high as 30 centimeters of snow and with temperatures of -18° Celsius.
One of the most affected cities was Saltillo, which after 48 hours of the cold front’s passing, remains with no power and some even without drinking water, since the strong winds deactivated 40 wells that provide water to the area, not counting the amount of fallen trees, blocked roads, etc.
The Civil Defense department rules out any fatal victims or wounded; and according to The National Water Commission (Conagua) prognosis, there will not be any further strong gusts of wind, but low temperatures will come. This is part of the El Niño onslaught, a meteorological phenomenon quickly turning into the most potent of the last 50 years, and that will keep intensifying until the first trimester of 2016, due to the climatic changes in the last years.
ALFA