Downpours devastate Peru

LIMA, Peru - Muddy water spilled onto streets and into homes on Thursday in a new round of unusually heavy rains that has killed at least a dozen people in Peru and now threatens flooding in the capital.

The intense rains and mudslides over the past three days have wrought havoc around the Andean nation and caught residents in Lima, a desert city of 10 million where it almost never rains, by surprise.

In one of the more dramatic incidents, stunned residents watched and took out cell phone cameras as a woman escaped after being swept into an avalanche of mud, wood debris and farm animals about 53 kilometers south of downtown Lima.