It had been raining for several days. Not just a light, gentle rain, but violent downpours, almost like Calcutta in the summer. But this is not monsoonal India. This is coastal Chile, one of the driest regions on Earth, and the sparsely vegetated Andean slopes simply could not absorb all the water. Soon, raging torrents of water and mud crashed down the slopes, leaving nearly 20 people dead or missing. Sixty thousand others had to be evacuated.

About six weeks earlier, in Peru, a freak snowstorm left thousands of motorists stranded on narrow, high, mountain roads. Trapped in their cars, six people froze to death before rescuers could reach them.

The Awesome Power of Floods

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Movies produced from video courtesy of KOMU-TV, Columbia, MO.