dramatic rescue outside of Lima, Peru

Using ropes and pulleys, rescue workers evacuated residents one by one from the buildings in Huachipa, some 24 kilometres east of Lima. According to Peru's National Emergency Operations Centre, the number of deaths resulting from flooding so far this year has risen from 50 to 62 in recent days. In February, the government decreed a state of emergency for 60 days in three regions where 4,900 thousand homes collapsed, according to local media reports. The precipitation has been fuelled by unusually warm temperatures in the Pacific that would indicate a strong El Nino if they hold, meteorologists have said.

The floods have already killed 62 people - injured over 140 people - across 24 regions in Peru and displaced almost 550,000 people and it could get worse with more rain predicted until April. About half a million people in Peru live in flood plains, according to a recent report by state water agency ANA.