The Chilean government has declared a state of emergency in the northern part of the country after heavy downpours equivalent to six years of rainfall battered the region in a single day, triggering consecutive disasters such as landslides.

According to local daily newspapers such as La Tercera and Infobae on the 19th local time, Chilean President José Antonio Kast declared a disaster state of emergency the previous day for the Tocopilla area in the northern Antofagasta region, which bore the brunt of the torrential rain damage.

President Kast stated via social media X (formerly Twitter), "We are declaring a state of disaster emergency to respond to the severe heavy rain damage in Tocopilla," adding, "We will mobilize all human and material resources to cope with this disaster."

The torrential rain swept across a wide area in the north, stretching from Arica to Valparaíso.

In particular, Tocopilla—a desert region with a valley terrain where rain rarely falls—received around 12 to 15 mm of precipitation, causing massive waves of mud and boulders to pour down from the hillside valleys.

This means that "heavy rain" equivalent to six years' worth of precipitation—given an annual rainfall of only 2 to 2.5 mm—poured down on the region in just one day.

Consequently, as of now, 1 person has died and 3 others have been injured, with some 580 displaced residents and about 1,100 evacuees reported.

In addition, approximately 60% of all households in the city of Tocopilla were buried in mud or flooded, and power supplies were cut off to more than 4,000 households.

Tocopilla Mayor Ljubica Kurtovic said, "The entire city is surrounded by valleys, leaving it completely exposed to mudslides," adding, "A tragic situation continues to unfold due to unexpected torrential rain."

Major roads and cross-border transit routes have also been paralyzed due to the heavy downpours.

Sections of the highway connecting Tarapacá and Antofagasta were blocked by debris flows, and major border crossings leading to Argentina and Bolivia were also cut off.

The Ministry of Education issued school closures for major northern states such as Tarapacá and Atacama, as well as several municipalities within Antofagasta.

Health authorities also urgently transferred patients from five medical facilities affected by flooding to nearby hospitals.

(Photo: Yonhap News)