A strong storm of rain and wind was recorded in Mercedes (Soriano) this Tuesday afternoon, and caused the fall of trees and electrical columns, as well as blowing up roofs and collapsed structures, he informed The Observer the coordinator of the Departmental Emergency Center (Cecoed), Zoilo Cheveste.
Mayor Guillermo Besozzi met in the afternoon with the emergency committee and, from his surroundings, they said that although there was damage in some parts of the city no people injured. Teams from the commune and the Cecoed tour the city in the afternoon to carry out a field survey.
The maximum peak was 122 kilometers in the hourat 4:20 p.m., Besozzi informed Underlined (channel 10). at night they were eight minors and two majors self-evacuatedalthough “the majority do not want to leave their homes,” said the hierarch.
As explained to The Observer Inumet’s chief forecaster, Nestor Santayanait was a wet downdraft. This phenomenon occurs due to the descent of a storm cloud that, when it reaches the surface, expands in all directions. It has the ability to leave damage from falling trees, power line columns and roof blasts.
It can generate winds of between 90 and 125 kilometers per hour, with the potential to generate heavy rain for a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes.
Although Santayana explained that it is still very rushed to have a report of what happened, he advanced: “From the videos I saw it could have been (gusts of wind) between 120 and 125” kilometers in the hour.
Around 8:00 p.m., UTE reported that throughout the department there were 3,901 customers without electricity, in a total of 37,424. By 10:00 p.m., there were 2,312.
Besozzi said that he received the call from the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou, and from “ministers.”
Firefighters and police received multiple emergency calls due to inclement weather. This was reported by the National Directorate of Firefighters through Twitter; attended emergencies due to detachment of roof sheets, fallen trees and columns.
Also, one wet downdraft it can generate hail and heavy rains in short periods of time, the Inumet later recorded in a post on Twitter.
The fact It happened around 4:20 p.m. Cheveste reported, and around 16:30 the Inumet issued an orange alert which included Soriano’s entire department. At night, another 11 departments were under that warning, due to strong storms and intense rains.
In Soriano, the authorities call on people to avoid moving around the city, where some neighborhoods are dark, and in the face of the risk that there is power lines on the ground. They urge to begin the tasks of refurbishing houses, with natural light, the next morning.
Army personnel carry out preventive patrol tasks, together with the police.
Several users reported what happened in Mercedes through social networks; Images of fallen trees, flooded streets and blown-out roofs spread quickly. Photos of debris falling on vehicles, and of destruction in the municipal square, where several trees fell, even went viral.
The storms displace to the east, along the coastal zone of the country, added Santayana. Around 7:00 p.m., the most intense phenomena occurred over Durazno, Río Negro and Paysandú. They would then affect Salto, Tacuarembó, Rivera, Cerro Largo and Artigas, with temporary improvements.
“The storms that entered through the southwest of the country, moved to the east, but punctually the most intense are those that are in the west-center of the country, moving slowly to the north,” he summarized.
