A whirling storm battered the coast of southern Brazil, killing two people, injuring at least 39 others and destroying hundreds of homes, civil defense officials said.
American meteorologists said winds exceeded 120kph, making the storm the first hurricane on record in the South Atlantic. Brazilian scientists originally disagreed, but on Sunday they acknowledged the winds could have been as high as 150kph -- well above hurricane strength.
Brazil has never seen a hurricane, and residents said they were terrified when the storm roared ashore early Sunday about 840km southwest of Rio de Janeiro, pounding homes with heavy rains and wind.
PHOTO: AFP
"It was like hammering on the houses," said Athaide Cambruzi, who lives in the resort town of Icara. "I saw seven beach houses literally smashed by the wind and the water."
Authorities were searching for 11 fishermen missing off the coast of Santa Catarina state after two boats sank 15km offshore in 4m-high waves early Sunday, Navy Commander Paolo Baltore said.
The storm cut phone lines to many towns, and the number of injuries was expected to rise as reports trickled in from those areas, said Marcio Luiz Alves, an official with the Santa Catarina state Civil Defense.
The storm damaged an estimated 20,000 homes in Santa Catarina, destroying 500 of them completely. That left about 1,500 people homeless and forced as many as 15,000 to flee their homes, Alves said.
In the town of Ararangua, at least 5,500 houses lost their roofs, said firefighter Sergeant Carlos Carvalho. Shelters were being set up in schools.
"We've never seen anything like this," he said.
The storm, dubbed Catarina by meteorologists, hit the coasts of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states late Saturday with heavy rains and high winds. It was dissipating over land late Sunday.
On Saturday, meteorologists from the Brazilian Center for Weather Forecasting and Climatic Studies were calling the storm an "extra-tropical cyclone" with estimated winds of 80-90kph.
But the US National Hurricane Center in Miami estimated the storm was a full-fledged, Category I hurricane with central winds of 121-129kph. A private US forecasting company, AccuWeather, said it also considered the storm a hurricane.
On Sunday, Brazilian scientists acknowledged they were surprised by the intensity of the storm. Brazil has no wind-measuring devices in the affected areas, and both the American and Brazilian scientists said they were basing their estimates on satellite data.
Marcelo Moraes, a meteorologist at the Integrated Climate Center of Santa Catarina state, said winds could have reached 150kph. Hurricanes begin at 120kph.
Near the city of Criciuma in Santa Catarina state, a tree smashed into a car and killed the driver, officials said. His wife was seriously injured. At least 34 others also were injured throughout the state, the civil defense said.
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