BUENOS AIRES - Rescuers in Argentina searched for two sisters, aged one and five, swept away by flash floods that killed 16 people in the city of Bahia Blanca at the weekend.
More than a year's worth of rain fell in a matter of hours on Friday, inundating entire neighborhoods of the port city about an eight-hour drive south from Buenos Aires.
Argentines have been particularly shaken by the unknown fate of two little girls who were travelling with their parents when their car became marooned in the fast-rising waters.
A delivery van driver managed to rescue the children and their mother and bring them aboard his vehicle but it too filled with water, relatives of the family told local media.
The four climbed onto the roof of the van but a flood surge ripped away the driver and the girls.
The mother survived, as did the children's father, but the body of the delivery driver was found on Sunday.
The government has ordered three days of national mourning over Bahia Blanca's worst disaster in decades, with about 500 people still in temporary shelter four days after the deluge.
One hundred people remained unaccounted for, but authorities believe most were simply unable to reach out because of damage to the city's cellphone masts and power cuts caused by the floods.
Bahia Blanca's mayor, Federico Susbielles, told reporters Monday that embankments were being built and pumps used to lower the water levels.
He said electricity had been restored to about 70 percent of households across the city of 350,000 people.