Brazilians yesterday braced for more rain, fearing more catastrophic landslides after walls of muddy water tore through towns and claimed almost 550 lives in the country’s worst-ever flood disaster.
As rescue teams and residents combed the wreckage of hillside communities near tourist hotspot Rio de Janiero, forecasters on Friday warned the wet weather was likely to last into next week.
“It will keep raining until at least next Wednesday in the Serrana region of Rio de Janeiro. We are predicting a light but steady rain, which is not good because it could lay the conditions for more landslides,” head of national weather institute Luiz Cavalcanti warned.
PHOTO: EPA
He stressed “light but continuous rain is very dangerous” because there is nowhere for it to flow away to and “it accumulates until the earth gives way under its weight and swallows up the hillside.”
The bad weather was hampering efforts to reach many small towns and rural areas, cut off after the floods washed away roads and tracks.
At least 545 people died in the towns of Nova Friburgo, Teresopolis, Petropolis and Sumidouro, the local mayors and Brazilian National Secretariat of Civil Defense officials reported. The toll however is not final, as rescuers continue to search amid the mud-covered rubble for bodies.
An estimated 12,000 people were left homeless.
Forecasters have said the storms dumped the equivalent of a month’s rain on the area in just a few hours and blamed the unusually wet weather on the La Nina phenomenon, which has increased rainfall in southeast Brazil.
The G1 news outlet called it “the biggest climatic tragedy in the history of the country,” surpassing the 437 people killed in a 1967 mudslide previously considered Brazil’s worst disaster.
“The forecast of more rains is not reassuring,” Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral said, again urging residents to abandon their homes in the disaster zones and move to safer ground.
One woman hastily throwing bags into her car, Marise Ventura, 54, said she and others had no choice but to leave Nova Friburgo, one of the worst hit towns.
“I’m going because there’s no electricity anywhere, no water, no food ... So I’m going to a relative’s place,” she told reporters.
In the town center, mud had taken over a square in front of a white church. Bulldozers and plastic-clad workers were clearing the area.
“It’s a total calamity. The town is finished. It was a tourist city, now it’s finished,” said Zaquequ Pereira Gonacalves, a local.
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