Storm floods Chile's driest desert, damaging 60% of homes in one city
A rare storm dumped about thirty millimeters of rain on Tocopilla, Chile in a few hours, an area that normally gets roughly five millimeters a year. President Jose Antonio Kast declared a state of catastrophe as the mayor said sixty percent of homes were damaged. Per UPI and Bernama-Xinhua.
A rare storm dumped roughly 30 millimeters of rain on the desert port city of Tocopilla, in Chile's Antofagasta region, within a few hours on August 18, 2026, an area that normally receives only about 5 millimeters of rain in an entire year. The mudflows damaged roads and swept through neighborhoods; Tocopilla Mayor Ljubica Kurtovic said 60% of homes in the city are damaged and that 2,000 people have lost their homes and are staying in shelters, adding that the rainfall exceeded expectations and existing mitigation measures were insufficient. Chile's Health Ministry said five health facilities were not operational and their patients had to be transferred to other hospitals. President Jose Antonio Kast declared a constitutional state of catastrophe for Tocopilla province, activating the military to support emergency response, and authorities issued a red alert for four communes in the Antofagasta region: Antofagasta, Mejillones, Tocopilla and Taltal. Sources: UPI, Bernama-Xinhua.