But the hand of El Nino pounded this city of 275,000 last week. Yesterday, the city had been so thoroughly devastated by freakish floods that an estimated 120,000 people are homeless.
The desperation in Ica underscores the reality that this nation is "ground zero" of the phenomenon known as El Nino, which involves an immense patch of warm water in the Pacific Ocean that shifts toward Peru's coast every few years and affects weather worldwide. This winter, El Nino has been blamed for torrential rains in California, a crippling ice storm in Canada, scorching heat in Brazil and a Washington winter so far without snow.
Peruvian fishermen were the ones who coined the term El Nino - the boy-child - because it often begins to manifest itself around Christmas. For the most superstitious here, El Nino appears to be seeking revenge on the nation that first spoke its name.
Scientists have flocked here to observe the effects. Rains have turned the country's largest desert into an instant Eden where flamingos wade in pools of water.
A petition signed by more than 150 professors and published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine and London's Financial Times was just the latest warning from Germany's leading experts that Europe should delay the euro's Jan. 1 debut.
02-10-98
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