Buenos Aires Herald - 30/10/2012

Buenos Aires City Deputy Mayor María Eugenia Vidal said yesterday that despite significant drainage works, including the drainage relief tunnel of the Maldonado River in 2011, the amount of rainfall exceeded established criteria for precautionary measures.

At press time, Buenos Aires City Governor Mauricio Macri had not commented on the storm which severely affected people in at least six Buenos Aires City neighbourhoods.
Vidal added: “There is an incredible change of climate occurring: rain is not what it was before, and that generates additional problems.” The official said the government had been working since early yesterday morning, and would undertake a “tour across the city” to assess damage. She also asserted the priority to “work on prevention first, and then on helping people.”
Vidal also announced the deployment of traffic wardens to regulate traffic on intersections with damaged traffic-lights and concluded that “gradually we hope this is resolved; it was a significant storm.”
Public Spaces and Environment Minister Diego Santilli said 46 millimetres had fallen in 45 minutes, and added: “We’ve been working since 3am,” claiming the “City held up pretty well, we have cases of minor flooding in certain areas.”
Former mayor Aníbal Ibarra claimed the Macri administration “has to analyze bit by bit why a collapse in different services and sectors occurred. It was a significant downpour but far from being one of the worst” and suggested he would ask for an explanation from City Urban Development Minister Daniel Chain at a City Legislature budget meeting yesterday.
The current Victory Front senator and former 2007 and 2011 mayoral candidate Daniel Filmus criticized Macri for not “heading the situation or looking for the mechanisms to resolve this new outbreak of flooding.” Filmus also criticized Macri for covering up the City’s flooding problems “with make-up” and not providing financial support to those previously affected by them.

Belgrano hit worst
Shop-owners in Belgrano voiced their indignation over the flooding of their property and hit out at the Macri administration. One shopkeeper on Cabildo Avenue said: “It floods whenever it rains a little too much, and this time was worse than the storm in January.”
In an attempt at damage control, clothing outlets sold soaked items at knock-down prices. Many expressed their scepticism that they would receive any compensation or aid from the City government.
When asked if she would make such a claim, one such sceptic said: “I won’t move a millimetre as I know what’s going to happen: nothing.”
Vidal told the press yesterday that the City government has a range of subsidies up to 8,000 pesos to compensate for damages to shops.
Vidal also attributed the responsibility of lack of progress on the anti-flooding infrastructure in Belgrano to the national government’s “obstruction machine.”
The auditor-general for the city, Eduardo Epszteyn, refuted the national government’s responsibility, saying the works were not carried out due to the “inactivity” and “inefficiency of Macri.”