El Niño rains flood South America, sending residents fleeing and cattle swimming

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Rivers swollen by heavy rains linked to El Niño continued flooding swaths of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay on Friday, forcing thousands of people from their homes and sending ranchers scrambling to move cattle to higher ground.In Argentina’s northeastern Corrientes province, the Paraná River rose to a dangerous 4.7 meters (15.4 feet) on Thursday in the riverside town of Ituzaingó, prompting evacuations there and in other towns across the province. Herds of cows waded across flooded pastures as ranchers guided them toward dry land. The calves struggled against a current thick with floating clumps of river plants. Provincial officials said they were digging canals and installing drains to prepare for more heavy rain.The floodwaters come from three major rivers that start in Brazil and flow south through the region: the Paraná, the Uruguay and the Iguazú. Torrential rain has pushed all three waterways higher for days, spilling them over their banks in northeastern Argentina, southern Paraguay and western Uruguay.This part of South America often gets heavy rain during El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon in which warmer-than-usual waters in the Pacific Oce...