Peru evacuates 1,500 tourists from Inca ruins

[senorpepr]

LIMA (AFP) - Peruvian authorities helicoptered hundreds of stranded tourists away from the famed Machu Picchu Inca ruins, as rescue teams searched for 10 people missing in avalanches, caused by flash floods that left one confirmed dead.

Peru's civil defense organization said around 500 tourists had been flown out of the area, after mud and rock slides early Saturday hit Aguas Calientes, the town closest to the 600 year old ruins, cutting off tourists.

Around 1,000 tourists were still stranded in the city -- both Peruvians and foreign nationals --where they had headed during the Easter holidays.

Authorities said they expect to be able to transfer them Sunday to Cusco, 150 kilometers (90 miles) away.

Civil defense chief Juan Podesta said rescue teams were searching for the missing.

Around 15 homes were destroyed by Saturday's avalanches which killed one person at Aguas Calientes, which sits below the Inca ruins.

Authorities initially put the death toll at six, but then revised it down.

At least six people were injured. Three were taken to hospital in Cusco and a fourth is to be flown to Lima, officials said. Around 60 people were left homeless.

Tourists are not numbered among the missing, according to Podesta.

He said police helicopters began transporting tourists to Ollantaytambo Saturday. From there buses ferried them back to Cusco.

On Sunday, buses drove as close to the Machu Picchu ruins as possible to collect other tourists who walked more than a kilometer (about one mile) to join the vehicles.

A police helicopter was operating from early Sunday, said Civil defense official Paul Zamora.

"We hope to add another (helicopter) to evacuate the tourists," Zamora said.

One of the landslides, which were caused by intense rains, destroyed railway tracks near Machu Picchu, trapping the tourists.

A spokeswoman for train company Peru Rail said repairs to the track had begun. She said the company was hoping to have rail service up and running again Sunday.

Around 200 meters of line however, was hit by the first landslide, according to a Peru Rail spokesman.

President Alejandro Toledo, who had arrived in the nearby city of Cusco by helicopter, said Saturday he was coordinating the rescue and cleanup efforts with civil defense authorities.

He lent his helicopter for the rescue effort and said he ordered military helicopters to take tourists out of the Inca ruins.

"I'm with the people of Aguas Calientes, seeing their anguish and sadness," Toledo said.

The Peruvian government said food, clothing and tools were being donated to those who lost their homes.

Machu Picchu, a magnet for tourists the world over, is a 15th century Inca stone city, perched atop a rocky ridge high in the Andes mountains, invisible from below and accessible only by bus from Aguas Calientes.

Archeologists believe the cloud-shrouded Machu Picchu ruins, with their palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and some 150 houses, were used by the Incas as a secret ceremonial city.

One of the marvels of the city is the architectural precision with which its structures were designed and built. Most of the buildings are of solid granite blocks, cut with bronze or stone tools and smoothed with sand.

The blocks fit together perfectly without traces of mortar, although none of the blocks are the same size and have multiple faces. The joints are so tight that even the thinnest of knife blades cannot be forced between the stones.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... _landslide

[Corona]

Yes, they're having a bad time of it up there. The video of the mudflows and flash floods that took out the train was indicative of steep slopes, narrow canyons and rapid runoff from all the rain, similar to the Pennsylvania floods back in the 80s.

[SolarQuestions]

Im just curious why this hasnt happened there before ...or at least not that i am aware of ...not that i have heard anways.

Was deforestation part of the cause ? Just curious.

[senorpepr]

I'm not completely sure, but I would assume this isn't the first time this has happened. I'm sure this is the first time in rescent history, though. Deforestation may be partically to blame, but essentially an active weather pattern is probably to blame.