Pope to visit Peruvian region hard hit by El Nino floods

Lima, Jan 20 (AP) When Pope Francis travels today tonorthern Peru he will find a region still reeling fromdevastating floods nearly a year ago that...

Lima, Jan 20 (AP) When Pope Francis travels today tonorthern Peru he will find a region still reeling fromdevastating floods nearly a year ago that toppled hundreds ofthousands of homes, left streets covered in thick layers ofmud and even ripped apart tombs from an above-ground cemetery.

Near the city of Trujillo, where the pontiff willcelebrate Mass and ride through a hard-hit neighborhoodbearing the same name as his own Argentine birthplace,thousands are still living in tents after El Nino rains killedmore than 150 and sent thousands onto rooftops seeking rescue.

Amidst that backdrop the pope is likely to encounter afrustrated population hoping his visit can quicken the pace ofreconstruction from the worst environmental disaster to strikePeru in nearly two decades.

"People are furious because authorities haven't doneanything," said Carlos Bocanegra, 60, a biologist who lives inTrujillo.

Francis will be the second pope to visit the coastal cityperiodically struck by disastrous rains caused by a warming ofPacific Ocean waters.

Pope John Paul II visited Trujillo in 1985 during adecade in which Peru was struck not just by El Nino floods butalso hyperinflation and political violence.

"Peace should arrive through dialogue and not violence,"the late pontiff told Peruvians during his visit to the city.

Three decades later many of the same inequalities thatexisted back then remain entrenched in Peruvian society, withpoor, rural areas still unprepared to face the damage causedby environmental calamity.

Bocanegra lamented that one year after the floods manystreets in Trujillo have been left contaminated by the fungusand debris following storms estimated to have caused severalbillion dollars in damage.

He vividly remembers how the street in front of his houseturned into a river so forceful it pulled furniture with itscurrent.

"We were left trapped," he recalls.

Images of Peruvians forming human chains to help oneanother cross flooded roads and remarkable stories of survivalfrom those who emerged alive from mudslides captivated thenation for months.

Official says the floods impacted nearly 2 millionpeople.

The trip to Trujillo comes one day before Francis isscheduled to depart back to Rome after a week-long trip toChile and Peru.

While the pontiff's trip to Chile was marred by protestsover the Catholic Church's response to priest abuse and thefirebombing of 11 churches, the pope has received a decidedlywarm welcome in Peru. Thousands in the deeply Catholic countryhave lined the streets wherever he travels to cheer and greethim.

Yesterday, thousands of Peruvians were traveling toTrujillo in order to attend the seaside Mass he will celebratein the city nearly 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of thenation's capital in Lima. Afterward he will ride on thestreets of the Buenos Aires neighborhood in the pope mobile.

(AP)MRJ.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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