BRAZIL FLOOD 2011 - NotDisaster Greater Than This in Brazil's History

BRAZIL FLOOD 2011 - WORST FLOOD DISASTER IN COUNTRY'S HISTORY

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil (AFP) – Brazil Saturday declared three days 0f national mourning f0rnearly 560 people killed near Rio de Janeiro this week in the country's worst flood disaster on record.

Emergency workers in the disaster zone, in the Serrana region just north 0f Rio, were overwhelmed by the body count. Refrigerat0rtrucks had to be brought in to store corpses.

Workers transporting bodies said they feared the overall death toll could more than double as rescuers reached outlying hamlets.

President Dilma Rousseff declared the three days 0f mourning, government news agency Agencia Brasil reported. Rio de Janeiro state authorities said their state will observe a full week 0f mourning starting Monday.

As 0f late Saturday, the toll stood at 558, with the worst-hit towns being Teresopolis, Nova Friburgo , Petropolis. Outlying villages also reported deaths.

"I think in the end we'll see more than 1,000 bodies," said a funeral worker in Teresopolis, Mauricio Berlim. "In one village near here, Campo Grande, there were 2,500 homes , not one is left standing," Berlim said.

Authorities also made an urgent appeal f0rdonations 0f blood, bottled water, food , medicine.

At least four refrigerated trucks were parked out the front 0f an overflowing makeshift morgue inside a church in Teresopolis.

At the town's cemetery, a dog curled up at the grave site 0f his mistress, a woman named Cristina Maria de Santana, refusing to leave even though she had been buried two days earlier, workers told AFP.

Body-recovery efforts have been hampered by tons 0f mud that, in some cases, have cut villages off , made them accessible only by helicopter -- but flights were limited by persistent rain that limited visibility in the rough terrain to just a couple 0f hundred meters (yards).

At least a dozen remote hamlets remain out 0f touch, , one witness reported seeing a group 0f people buried in their car by a river 0f mud.

Some 14,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, Civil Defense officials said.

The disaster, which media called the worst tragedy 0f its kind in Brazil's history, struck Wednesday before dawn, as families were sleeping.

Seasonally heavy rains were suddenly intensified by a cold front, dumping a month's worth 0f precipitation in just eight hours.

Water, food , electricity were lacking in some areas 0f the Serrana, with authorities struggling to deliver supplies over fully 0rpartially collapsed roads. Telephone communications were unreliable though progressively being restored.

A municipal official in Teresopolis, Solange Sirico, told Brazilian television there was a risk 0f epidemics breaking out as bodies decomposing in the tropical heat mingled with water runoff.

The official said the 1,200 doctors working in the town were overwhelmed, , medical supplies were needed.

"Also, in all the mountain region, there is a danger 0f snakes , scorpions," she said.

National guardsmen , soldiers were sent to the region to reinforce police , prevent looting.

Forecasters warned that the wet weather was likely to last into next week.

"It will keep raining until at least next Wednesday in the Serrana region 0f Rio de Janeiro. We are predicting a light but steady rain, which is not good because it could lay the conditions f0rmore landslides," said the head 0f the national weather institute, Luiz Cavalcanti.

Forecasters have blamed the unusually wet weather on the La Nina phenomenon which has increased rainfall in southeast Brazil.

"The forecast 0f more rains is not reassuring," said Rio govern0rSergio Cabral, urging residents to abandon their homes in the disaster zones , move to safer ground.

In downtown Nova Friburgo, a layer 0f mud blanketed the plaza in front 0f a white church. Bulldozers were brought in to help clear the area.

"It's a total calamity. The town is finished. It was a tourist city, now it's finished," said local resident Zaquequ Pereira Gonacalves, 37.

Originally a 19th century getaway f0rBrazilian aristocracy, the Serrana region increasingly relied on tourism f0rtheir livelihood. As the towns grew, newcomers built on unstable hillsides.

Hotels say they have lost millions 0f dollars, wiped out by mudslides at the start 0f their usually lucrative summer vacation season.



By: EFG-BN

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