Argentine Julia Martinez collects her family's belongings in her backyard after escaping the floods by "swimming out the window." "We looked for something to float on and swam out the window," she recalls, after her hometown, Bahia Blanca, 600 km south of Buenos Aires, was hit by a year's worth of rain within just a few hours. Meanwhile, people are collecting donations, including water, medicine, and cleaners, for those affected by the floods. The death toll from the floods rose to 16, with 900 people evacuated and a hundred missing. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES