Chilean President José Antonio Kast has declared a 30-day constitutional state of catastrophe in the Coquimbo region and the Huasco province of the Atacama region, following a severe storm system that has killed at least ten people, left four missing, and isolated more than 100,000 residents across the country's north. Authorities have warned the death toll could rise, as many affected areas remain unreachable due to blocked roads and ongoing adverse conditions.

The weather front first struck southern Chile on July 15 before moving northward, where it hit the desert regions of Coquimbo and Atacama — areas unaccustomed to rainfall of this scale — with particular intensity. Coquimbo lies roughly 460 kilometres north of Santiago. In the town of Andacollo, more than 300 millimetres of rain fell in a single night, while Cerro Tololo recorded over 200 millimetres. Swollen rivers overwhelmed roads, cutting off communities, while flooding and mudslides damaged drinking water infrastructure and caused widespread power cuts. The Energy Ministry reported approximately 150,000 people without electricity as of Tuesday. The Coquimbo regional governor described neighbourhoods "full of mud, flooded, with people who have lost their homes and belongings."

The scale of the disaster has been described as historically unprecedented in recent memory. Deputy Interior Minister Máximo Pavez stated that "what normally falls in a month fell in an hour," classifying the event as extreme and abnormal. A meteorological official added that Chile had not experienced a storm of this breadth and intensity in roughly two decades, with the Coquimbo governor noting the last comparable episode was in 1997. The National Disaster Prevention and Response Service, Senapred, recorded more than 1,100 homes destroyed or seriously damaged, around 2,400 people displaced, and over 2,200 directly affected.

The state of catastrophe declaration grants the government authority to deploy military personnel for rescue operations, restrict movement where necessary, and accelerate the delivery of aid. The army has already been mobilised. Dozens of ports across the country have also restricted operations as a precautionary measure, with wind gusts exceeding 100 kilometres per hour and high seas reported along the coast.

Authorities expect the rains to continue through the week and are maintaining alerts across multiple regions. The storm is the latest in a series of extreme weather events across South America in recent weeks, underscoring the growing frequency and severity of such episodes across the broader region.