• Anger at politicians rises as floodwaters recede in Argentina

    Natacha Pisarenko/AP

    People embrace outside a club Thursday where the Red Cross set up a center to help flood victims in La Plata, Argentina. The death toll from the flooding reached 57 on Friday and could climb further. Many people expressed anger at the government for not doing more to help.

    By Damian Pachter and Paul Byrne, The Associated Press

    LA PLATA, Argentina -- Argentine police and soldiers searched house to house, in creeks and culverts and even in trees for bodies on Thursday after floods killed at least 57 people in the province and city of Buenos Aires.

    As torrential rains stopped and the waters receded, the crisis shifted to guaranteeing public health and safety in this provincial capital of nearly 1 million people. Safe drinking water was in short supply, and more than a quarter-million people were without power, although authorities said most would get their lights back on overnight.

    Many people barely escaped with their lives after seeing everything they own disappear under water reeking with sewage and fuel that rose more than six feet high inside some homes. The wreckage was overwhelming: piles of broken furniture, overturned cars, ruined food and other debris.

    Their frustration was uncontainable as politicians arrived making promises. President Cristina Fernandez, Gov. Daniel Scioli, Social Welfare Minister Alicia Kirchner and the mayors of Buenos Aires and La Plata were all booed when they tried to talk with victims. Many yelled "go away" and "you came too late."

    "I understand you, I understand you're angry," Kirchner said before she and the governor fled in their motorcade from an angry crowd.

    "There is no water, there is no electricity. We have nothing," said Nelly Cerrado, who was looking for donated clothing at a local school. "Terrible, terrible what we are going through. And no one comes. No one. Because here, it is neighbors who have to do everything."

    Scioli said the death toll had risen to 51 people in and around La Plata, following six deaths in the national capital from flooding two days earlier. But he said nearly all of the missing had been accounted for.

    Mobile hospitals were activated after two major hospitals were flooded, and government workers were handing out donated water, canned food and clothing. Provincial Health Minister Alejandro Collia said hepatitis shots were being given at 33 evacuation centers, and that spraying would kill mosquitoes that spread dengue fever.

    "The humanitarian question comes first. The material questions will be resolved in time," said Scioli, who promised subsidies, loans and tax exemptions for the victims.

    Argentina's weather service had warned of severe thunderstorms, but nothing like rainfall that fell this week.

    More than 16 inches drenched La Plata in just a few hours late Tuesday and early Wednesday — more than has ever been recorded there for the entire month of April.

    In both Buenos Aires and La Plata, sewage and storm drain systems were overwhelmed, and low-lying neighborhoods looked something like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, with all but the upper parts of houses under water.

    And in both cities, politicians sought to fix blame on their rivals as residents complained that government in general was ill-prepared and providing insufficient help.

    It didn't help that the mayors of both cities were vacationing in Brazil when disaster struck.

    Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri said Fernandez needs to foster expensive public works projects to cope with storms that will become more frequent due to climate change.

    La Plata Mayor Pablo Bruera, meanwhile, arrived home to an additional, self-inflicted disaster: While he was in Brazil, a tweet sent from his official Twitter account falsely claimed he had been "checking on evacuation centers since last night." The tweet even included an old picture of Bruera handing out bottled water.

    Bruera told reporters Thursday that he would not resign over the false claim, and that he had instead fired the people responsible for what he called a "mistake by my communications team."

    Related:

    Flooding kills at least 46 people in Argentina

    PhotoBlog: Deadly flooding in Argentina

    Argentines divided over pope's legacy


    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Flooding kills at least 46 people in Argentina

    Jorge Luperne/Reuters

    Residents stand next to debris of their ruined home after heavy rains flooded a large part of the city, in La Plata on April 3.

    By Reuters

    Flash floods killed at least 46 people and forced about 1,500 residents to evacuate the Argentine city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires province, government officials said on Wednesday.

    Some people drowned after being trapped in their cars or while walking along city streets when the water rose suddenly on Tuesday night, while others were electrocuted, provincial governor Daniel Scioli told reporters.

    The same storm killed at least five people in Buenos Aires, which lies about 36 miles northwest of La Plata.

    "Families and small children spent the night on their roofs, getting wet. People in wheelchairs were up to their waists in water all night. It was a disaster," Bruno Zorzit, a resident of La Plata, told Reuters Television.

    Local media said between 12 to 16 inches of rain fell in just two hours, flooding low-lying neighborhoods in La Plata and surrounding areas.

    President Cristina Fernandez, who grew up near La Plata, visited the flood zone and promised to send more police to calm people's fears that evacuated homes could be looted.

    Natacha Pisarenko / AP

    A couple looks at their flooded street from behind their home's window in La Plata, in Argentina's Buenos Aires province, Wednesday, April 3, 2013.

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  • Trading in the bus for a butler: The new pope's new lifestyle

    After distancing himself from the traditional pomp and privilege of his new title, Pope Francis – known for his sincerity and frugality – has shown every indication that he plans to remain an educator and a pastor in addition to all of his other responsibilities. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

    By Jeff Black and Tracy Connor, NBC News

    The Mercedes popemobile. The 10-room penthouse apartment. The Swiss Guards.

    The worldly trappings of the papacy will be a big adjustment for a former prince of the church who tried to live like a pauper.

    Slideshow: Pope Francis: His life before the papacy

    © Reuters Photographer / Reuters / REUTERS

    Pope Francis was known for his common touch when he was cardinal of Argentina.

    Launch slideshow

    Before he was Pope Francis, Argentinian archbishop Jorge Bergoglio was known for shunning the perks of the job -- the palace, the chauffeur, the red vestments -- for a simpler life befitting a Jesuit priest.

    Now that he's leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, the man who took a vow of poverty at age 22 will have to get off the bus and get used to having a butler.

    Or maybe it's the Vatican that's in for a change. Within minutes of being named pontiff, the new boss was already putting a stamp of simplicity on papal life.

    He did not sit on the papal throne to receive the cardinals, he didn't don a red cloak over his white cassock, and he declined to take an official car back to the hotel, opting to take the bus with the rest of the group, a Vatican spokesman said Thursday.

    In Buenos Aires, Bergoglio walked to his office and often used buses -- likened by one travel writer to "old men in a bar – loud, smoky, rough around the edges" -- to get around town.

    Osservatore Romano / Reuters file

    He used to take the bus, but this is Pope Francis' new ride.

    He's unlikely to have that lack of luxury as pope, if only for security reasons. His main ride will be the white armored Mercedes SUV with an elevated glass enclosure, known to the world as the popemobile. The interior is white leather with gold trim.

    For longer jaunts across Italy he has the option of a helicopter, staffed by pilots from the Italian Air Force. Commercial jets are chartered for flights around the world, and the pope sits up front.

    His new digs will be first-class, too.

    As a cardinal, Bergoglio was entitled to live in an opulent mansion but chose to bed down in a spartan downtown apartment, keeping warm with a stove when the building turned off the heat on weekends, according to The Associated Press.

    Soon he'll move to a sprawling wrap-around suite on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace that 200 workers spent three months renovating in 2005.

    There's a private chapel, a medical office, a library large enough to hold Pope Benedict XVI's 20,000 books, a state-of-the-art German kitchen with onyx counters, and the office from which he blesses the crowd in St. Peter's on Sundays.

    A lavish home fit for a pope
    The floors are 16th century inlaid marble polished to a gleam. The loggia that leads to the apartment is covered in historic frescoes. There's access to a rooftop garden, and the attic has small apartments for guests and staff.

    The household retinue includes a butler, a couple of secretaries, and women from a lay association known as Memores Domini who cook and clean. 

    That will seem like a crowd to Pope Francis, who lived alone in Argentina and spent every morning sitting next to his landline phone, personally taking calls from parish priests and recording their complaints and requests in a small notebook, a former aide told NBC Latino.

    Luciano Thieberger / AP file

    No fancy wines for Pope Francis. He prefers "mate," a traditional South American beverage.

    Bergoglio also cooked for himself, and his favorite meal might horrify the average Italian: skinless chicken and salad. He does enjoy a glass of wine -- or a shot of espresso while in Rome -- but usually settles down with a spot of Argentinian tea called mate.

    At the Vatican, typical meals might include pasta with salmon and zucchini or rigatoni with prosciutto, prepared on a marble table with vegetables imported from the papal vacation home, Castel Gandolfo. Rich desserts like strudel or tiramisu were on the menu under Benedict's watch.

    If he packs on a few pounds, no worries: A major wardrobe change is also in the offing.

    While some cardinals seem to love cloaking themselves in the crimson robes that advertise their rarefied status, Bergoglio covered up with a black overcoat. The Argentinian newspaper La Nacion reported that he didn't order new clothes when he was elevated; he had the previous cardinal's hand-me-downs tailored to fit him.

    Osservatore Romano / Reuters

    As a cardinal, he covered up his telltale red vestments with a plain black overcoat. Pope Francis will now wear white and be outfitted by tailor Gammarelli's.

    After Pope Francis was elected on Wednesday evening, the papal tailor Gammarelli's would have offered him a burgundy mozzetta, a short cape either in red velvet trimmed in white fur or in silk brocade to wear over his cassock. He demurred, and no one will be shocked if he decides against the red leather slippers that became Benedict's trademark.

    Even though he was his country's top church official, Bergoglio rarely interacted with the press, preferring to make his points from the pulpit. Soon he'll have reporters from around the world scrutinizing his every word and gesture.

    Father Jorge, as he was called at home, will be known as His Holiness. But those close to him expect the railway worker's son will cling to some of the pared-down aspects of his former existence.

    "This routine is his life's backbone," Father Guillermo Marcó, who worked for him for eight years, told NBC Latino. "And he will try to keep it in place as much as possible."

    At a papal briefing, the Vatican offered details about what happened inside the Sistine Chapel and afterwards following the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as the next pope.

    Related:

    The pope's to-do list: 7 challenges facing Francis

    Pope likely to back status quo on gays, abortion

    Full coverage of Pope Francis on NBC News