Peru airlifted 600 tourists stranded by floods near the Machu Picchu archaeological site this morning as more tourists arrived in the town seeking evacuation, Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Martin Perez said today.
The government aims to rescue 400 more people by the end of the day, Perez told Lima-based Radioprogramas. About 670 tourists and 740 guides on the Inca trail hiking path will reach Machu Picchu today, swelling the numbers requiring evacuation, Perez said in comments reported by state news agency Andina.
The longest spell of heavy rain in 20 years in Peru’s southern Andes during the past week triggered flash flooding and landslides, blocking the railway and roads between Machu Picchu and the region’s largest city Cuzco.
“With the help of the weather, we could have all the tourists out in the next two days,” Transport Minister Enrique Cornejo told Lima-based Canal N television. “If water levels continue to fall, work on the rail line can commence.”
The rescue operation is being slowed because helicopters have had a difficult time reaching the town, which is located in a steep ravine, U.S. Ambassador to Peru Michael McKinley told Radioprogramas. Peruvian police and army helicopters can carry about 20 people at a time, while the six helicopters supplied by the U.S. Embassy can carry no more than eight, McKinley said.
“The best-case scenario implies the airlift could last three or four days more,” McKinley told Radioprogramas. “It looks like the weather is going to cooperate with the operation today.”
Partly-cloudy skies and showers are expected to continue through Jan. 31, according to Accuweather.com.
Chilean Air Force
Between 60 and 65 Americans were evacuated yesterday, leaving about 130 still waiting to leave, McKinley said. Thirty- five Chileans were also rescued yesterday and will fly from Cuzco to Iquique on a Chilean air force plane, Canel N said. About 250 Chileans remain, Canal N said.
Fifty Argentines have been evacuated by helicopter while nine Argentines that left Machu Picchu on foot were found in Santa Teresa, a neighboring town, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said today in an e-mailed statement. Two Argentine air force planes were dispatched to Cuzco today, the ministry said.
Flooding caused by torrential rain has destroyed roads, bridges and harvests, and left entire towns uninhabitable. About 36,000 people have been affected, Alberto Bisbal, a director at the national civil defense authority, Indeci, told Canal N.
Falling Water Levels
The railway between Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo, a transfer point for trains to the Inca ruins, remains flooded. Water levels in the Vilcanota River, which runs alongside the railway, have begun to fall after rising to the highest level inr 50 years, Cornejo said.
Orient Express Hotels Ltd.’s Peru Rail unit, one of three companies operating shuttles to Machu Picchu, let tourists shelter in its wagons at the town’s train station, and provided them with food, telephones and Internet access, Chief Executive Officer Armando Pareja told Radioprogramas.
Tourists sat, ate and slept on the floor of the town’s main square today waiting their turn to be evacuated. Others helped rebuild defenses along the bank of the Vilcanota River, which has eroded parts of the bank, damaging roads and buildings.
Bloomberg - John Quigley
To contact the reporters on this story: John Quigley in Lima at jquigley8@bloomberg.net
