Mercosur member countries, including Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil, have experienced extreme rainfall in January, causing devastating floods and displacing thousands of people. The flooded region has received about five times more rain than expected since the beginning of the year, with some areas receiving a whole year's worth of rainfall in the first 15 days of the calendar year. The economic burdens of Argentina's recession have been amplified by the floods, with damages to farmland estimated at around $2 billion. Millions of hectares of crops have been sent underwater, with soybean plantations particularly affected. Uruguay has also experienced flooding, with 1,500 people evacuated to temporary housing and much of the highways network seriously damaged.