The president of Chile has officially declared a state of catastrophe following a major flood that killed at least nine people across the northern part of the country.

Drone footage filmed over the Atacama desert shows the awful aftermath of the sand-filled flood that destroyed everything in its path, including homes. The floods were triggered by a bout of extreme rainfall over the Andes.

In a media address on Friday, Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera estimated that more than 1,200 homes will have to be replaced in the region, and the cost of repairing the cataclysmic damage could be in the range of $60 billion, reports ADN Chile.

Chile has been rocked by several extreme weather events so far this year. Apart from one of the world’s driest deserts becoming overrun with water, the south of the country has been racked with forest fires fueled by the blistering heat.

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