Bahía Blanca floods - Mother nature says: no Nuremberg for you today

Update 20250309 13:20-03:00 - How to help

A friend of mine living in the USA sent me this link to help the flood victims: Support Bahía Blanca (Argentina) Flood Victims

Original blog post

These are not good news. In fact, much the contrary. Compared to the real issue, the fact that I'm not able to attend Embedded World at Nuremberg is, well, a detail. Or at least that's what I'm forcing myself to believe, as I REALLY wanted to be there. But mother nature said otherwise.

Park "D. Alberto Martinelli", Las Cañitas, Bahía Blanca (Google Maps)

Bahía Blanca , the city I live, has received a lot on rainfall. Really, a lot. Let me introduce the number like this: the previous highest recorded measurement was 170mm (6.69 inch)... in a month. Yesterday Friday 07 we had more than 400mm (15.75 inch) in 9 hours.

But those are just numbers. Some things are better seen in images.

I'll start with some soft ones.

Sink in Fournier street near Cambaceres (Google Maps)

I also happen to do figure skating in the same school of the 4 times world champions (where "world" means the whole world) Roller Dreams precision skating team - Instagram, from Club El Nacional. Our skating rink got severely damaged with the hail we had like 3 weeks ago (yes, we had hail too!!!). Now it's just impossible:

The "real" thing

Let's get to the heavy, heartbreaker part. I did go to downtown Bahía Blanca, but during night, so let me share some links, most of them in Spanish, but images are images:

• El día después de la catástrofe: Bahía volvió a amanecer destrozada, La Nueva.
• En 20 imágenes, el inmenso daño que provocó el temporal en Bahía, La Nueva.
• Drone footage of the nearby stream, which now seems a river, Instagram.
• Drone footage of the same above stream nearer the golf club and entering the city - MP4. I do not know the author, happy to give the proper credits if contacted!!!

My alma matter, Universidad Nacional del Sur, lost its main library, great part of the Physics department and a lot of labs :-(

A nearby town, General Cerri, had even worst luck. In Bahía Blanca, a city of 300k+ people, has around 400 evacuated people. General Cerri, a town of 3000? people, had at least 800.

Bahía Blanca, devil's land

Every place has its legends. We do too. This land was called "Huecuvú Mapú", something like "Devil's land" by the original inhabitants of the zone, due to its harsh climate: string winters and hot summers, couple with fierce wind. But back in 1855 the Cacique (chief) José María Bulnes Yanquetruz had a peace agreement with commander Nicanor Otamendi. But a battle ensued, which Yanquetruz won. At this point history defers depending upon who tells it. Some say Yanquetruz was assigned a military grade as Captain of the indigenous auxiliary forces and provided a military suit, some say he stole it, some say this was a setup of another chief wanting to disrupt peace. But what is known is that Yanquetruz was killed, and his wife, the "machi" (sorceress), issued a curse over the land that would last 1000 years, and the curse was on the climate.

Aftermath

No, we are not there yet. This has just happened. The third violent climate occurrence in 15 months. The city needs to mourn and start healing itself. Time will say.

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  Permalink Reply

  Matthias U

  Posted on dom 09 marzo 2025

  Owch. That does look a whole lot like the Ahrtal mess we had in Germany a couple years ago. Sorry you'll miss Embedded World, I'll be visiting, but then I live in Nürnberg …

  NB: "its" vs. "it's". Your first use of the latter is correct, the other three … not so much.

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    Permalink Reply

    Lisandro Damián Nicanor Pérez Meyer

    Posted on dom 09 marzo 2025

    Thanks for the feedback! Yes, I do have an issue with its vs it's. Text fixed. Thanks again!