Salvadoran Municipalities at Red Alert Due to Heavy Rains

El Salvador’s Civil Protection Directorate (CPD) on Friday decreed Red Alert in Tecoluca, Jiquilisco, and The Triumph Port municipalities due to heavy rains caused by a tropical wave.

RELATED:

Salvadorans Protest Against Legalization of Bitcoin

"Tonight, we foresee thunderstorms towards the coastal strip of the national territory with great intensity in the central zone," a meteorologist at the Environment Ministry’s Observatory (EMO), Walter Flores, said and explained that El Salvador’s proximity to the Intertropical Convergence Zone increases rainfall irrigation.

So far, rainfall from the tropical wave has left about 300 millimeters of rain accumulated in the subsoil and hydraulic dams of the country. This has led to landslides and floods, which have forced over 32 citizens to evacuate in temporary shelters.

Although rainfall has caused more havoc in some municipalities than in others, the rains have had an "equitable distribution" throughout this Latin American country. Therefore, fire brigades and civil protection teams were deployed nationwide to help the population.

Flores pointed out that even more severe rains and floods will be expected during the weekend due to the drag of the humidity from the Pacific Ocean and the high tides that will remain until Sunday.

Currently, the Lempa River Hydroelectric Commission (CEL), which will control the discharge of water from some dams so as to avoid their overflow, would be in charge of evacuating the population in the highest risk territories, if needed.

Currently, the EMO is monitoring two tropical waves that are forming in northern Honduras and southern Latin America since these meteorological phenomena have about a 35 percent probability of gaining strength and affecting El Salvador.