A severe storm with rain and winds of more than 150 kilometers per hour killed at least 14 people, caused damage, paralyzed several cities in central Argentina this weekend and left two dead in western Uruguay, official sources said.

Argentine President Javier Milei traveled on Sunday to Bahía Blanca, a port city 800 km southwest of Buenos Aires, where 13 people – including a child – were killed on Saturday when the roof of a club collapsed during the storm.

Another 14 people were seriously injured, according to the municipality. The victims were surprised by the storm when a skating competition took place at the traditional club Bahiense del Norte, the same club where former world basketball star Manuel Ginobili was trained.

“Do not allow people to circulate, we are still in a state of emergency,” the mayor of Bahia Blanca told residents on Sunday, who were left without power and suffered widespread damage from wind gusts that authorities said “reached more than 150 km/h.”

Milei arrived in the Atlantic city on Sunday afternoon with three ministers, including those of Security and Defense, and met with local and provincial authorities.

“In the face of these very adverse events, Argentinians always manage to bring out the best in us, testing our resilience and solidarity. “I have full confidence that you will be able to resolve this situation in the best possible way with the existing resources,” the president told the assembled authorities, who are coordinating the response to the emergency.

In Moreno, 40 km from Buenos Aires, a woman died after being hit by the branch of an old tree, police sources said.

The hurricane-force winds were generated by “a large mass of previously warm and moist air activated by the passage of a cold front”, but with no specific link to the current El Niño phenomenon, meteorologist Leo DeBenedictis explained to AFP.

More than 150 emergencies in Uruguay

In Uruguay, at least two people were killed in the southwestern department of Colonia on Sunday morning, struck by falling trees and blown-off roofs, due to wind speeds of more than 167 km/h, the Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (Inumet) reported.

An eight-year-old boy died at a campsite in the Santa Regina resort, on the Río de la Plata, and a 20-year-old young man lost his life while riding a motorcycle on a route near the city of Rosario, according to official information.

Fire officials reported that more than 150 emergencies had been handled in Montevideo and the rest of the country, with trees and columns falling on properties and vehicles and causing damage to homes and the sanitary network, according to local media.

The Inumet warned on Sunday of strong storms and heavy rainfall in the southwestern region of the country.

Argentina’s National Meteorological Service (SMN) instead deactivated the “orange” alert in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, Córdoba and Santa Fe (middle east), although it predicted the advance of the storms towards the north of the country .

Destroyed in Buenos Aires

The city of Buenos Aires experienced wind speeds of almost 100 kilometers per hour, heavy rain and electricity outages early on Sunday, Mayor Jorge Macri said.

The capital woke up to 360 fallen trees destroying vehicles, cutting cables, collapsing public lighting poles and canopies and disrupting traffic on streets and avenues.

In the Palermo district, at least six people were slightly injured in the early morning during the Bresh music party, at the GEBA club, where the main stage collapsed, the public emergency service SAME reported.

Another 14 people were treated by doctors after tents were blown up during an event at Palermo Racecourse, SAME detailed.

“I’ve never seen anything like this: this is a cemetery with fallen trees and destroyed cars,” Sergio Zárate, a 37-year-old neighbor, told AFP.

The emblematic mobile metal sculpture ‘Floralis Genérica’ in Palermo lost one of its gigantic petals.

More than a hundred flights have been canceled at the local Jorge Newbery Airport (Aeroparque), concessionaire Aeropuertos 2000 reports. A plane was dragged several meters by the wind, as were rolling stairs, according to videos on social networks.

The capital’s northern, western and southern suburbs were also hit by accumulations of 40mm of rain in a few hours, a third of the historical average for December, the SMN reported. (JO)