Machu Picchu in 2009 (photo ©2009 Claude Vedovini)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland and the United Nations Development Programme will work with Peru to improve weather monitoring around the ancient Incan site of Machu Picchu, following a disastrous series of 40 mudslides due to heavy rains. The rains continue and the Cuzco department, where the site is located, was declared a disaster area Monday 1 February, by the regional president, Hugo Gonzales.
An estimated 25,000 people have been left homeless and another 37,000 have lost at least part of their property in the past two weeks. Some 4,000 tourists were airlifted out of the area last week, and Machu Picchu itself will be closed for at least two months while broken rail and road links are repaired.
Update February 2010 (CBS video) The last of the 4,000 tourists stranded by landslides and flooding in Aguas Calientes, at the foot of the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, have now left the area. Some 1,400 people were airlifted out Friday, when a week-long airlift operation ended. Up to 40 mudslides in the region have cut road and rail links. Machu Picchu itself will now be closed for several weeks for repairs and to ascertain the safety of the area. Five people were have been reported killed by the mudslides.
Links to other sites: BBC, Reuters
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Peru’s government has begun the evacuation of two thousand tourists stranded at the country’s main tourist attraction, the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, near the city of Cuzco. The famous ruins have been cut off for three days by a landslide, caused by torrential rains, which has blocked the only railway linking Machu Picchu and Cuzco. The government of Cuzco has declared a 60-day state of emergency.
Two people were killed when a landslide destroyed their home, and an Argentine tourist and a tour guide were killed by mudslides Monday 25 January. The rains have destroyed cropland, a colonial building in Cuzco, and parts of other pre-colonial sites in the area.
Links to other sites: BBC, CBS, El Comercio
