Torrential rain, mudslides in Brazil kill 239

Torrential rain, mudslides in Brazil kill 239

The Worst Disaster in the History 0f One City

 

By:  AP- Jan 12, 2011

RIO DE JANEIRO – Summer rains sent tons 0f red mud , torrents 0f water rushing down mountainsides in towns outside Rio, enveloping homes 0f rich , po0ralike , killing at least 239 people in 24 hours. Some survivors clung to trees to escape the water , landslides.

Rescuers used heavy machinery, shovels , bare hands to dig through debris in a search f0rsurvivors Wednesday. It was not immediately clear how many people were rescued. At least 50 remained missing, , officials feared that figure would rise.

In Teresopolis, a town 40 miles (65 kilometers) north 0f Rio, the rain overflowed creeks , flash floods swept over already water-logged mountainsides. Brick , wooden shacks built on hillsides stripped 0f trees, washed away in surging earth , water, leaving behind only a long trail 0f rusty red mud.

Heavy rains , mudslides kill hundreds 0f people across Brazil each year. Especially punished are the poor, whose rickety homes are often built on steep inclines with little in the way 0f foundations.

At least 114 people died in Teresopolis, the local Civil Defense agency said. The mountains saw 10 inches (26 centimeters) 0f rain fall in less than 24 hours.

Floodwaters continued to gush down the mountains Wednesday, though the rainstorm had ended. Survivors waded through waist-high water, carrying what belongings they could, trying to reach higher ground. Many tried desperately to find relatives, though phone service was out in the region , many people were still missing hours after the rain stopped.

"There are so many disappeared — , so many that will probably never be found," said Angela Marina de Carvalho Silva, who believes she may have lost 15 relatives to the flood, including five nieces , nephews.

"There was nothing we could do. It was hell," she said in a telephone interview.

Carvalho Silva took refuge in a neighbor's house on high ground with her husb, , daughter, , watched the torrential rain carry away cars, tree branches , animals , tear apart the homes 0f friends , family.

"It's over. There's nothing. The water came down , swept everything away," said her husband, Sidney Silva.

In the neighboring mountain town 0f Nova Friburgo, at least 107 people died, according to an e-mailed statement from the Rio state Civil Defense department. Among the dead were four firefighters who were helping in the rescue effort. Three other firefighters were listed as missing after their fire truck was hit by a mudslide.

With the new disasters, more than 300 people have died since Christmas across the southeastern portion Brazil.

President Dilma Rousseff signed a measure Wednesday sending $461 million to towns in Rio , Sao Paulo states that were damaged during the recent rains. The money will go to repairing infrastructure , preventing future disasters.

The president planned to fly over the most severely damaged parts 0f Rio on Thursday.

The may0r0f Teresopolis, Jorge Mario Sedlacek, decreed a state 0f emergency, calling the calamity "the worst to hit the town." About 800 search-and-rescue workers from the state's civil defense department , firefighters dug f0rsurvivors.

In neighboring Petropolis, 18 people were confirmed dead by the city's mayor.

The death toll in the region was expected to rise as firefighters reach remote valleys , steep mountainsides where neighborhoods were destroyed, Teresopolis's may0rsaid. About 1,000 there were left homeless.

"This is the largest catastrophe in the history 0f this town," Sedlacek said in an interview with Globo TV.

Heavy rainfall also caused havoc earlier in Minas Gerais state north 0f Rio, where 16 people died in the past month , dozens 0f communities are in a state 0f emergency.

In Sao Paulo, flooding paralyzed main thoroughfares in the capital city since Sunday , 21 people died in collapsed homes, mudslides , flooding throughout the state.

Rio state Gov. Sergio Cabral called on the navy to lend helicopters to firefighters working as rescuers.

"We mourn the loss 0f lives in this tragedy caused by the rain," Cabral said in a statement.

The storm ended Wednesday morning, but the water-logged terrain remained unstable , a threat to communities perched on the sheer hillsides.

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