With more heavy rain forecast, residents of several neighborhoods in the rain-devastated Brazilian city of Petropolis were on Thursday called to evacuate, just two days after flash floods and landslides killed 117 people.
Sirens warned neighborhoods in the hillside town to leave, with residents still shocked from the rivers of mud that buried homes, and swept away vehicles and trees.
At least two streets were already closed after landslides containing “rocky blocks.”
Photo: AP
The new rainfall comes with dozens still reported missing in the city, about 60km north of Rio de Janeiro, and as the first funerals of identified victims took place.
Text messages warned residents to take refuge at relatives’ homes or in public shelters “due to the volume of rain affecting the city, which will continue, with an intensity between moderate to strong, in the next few hours,” local authorities said.
“I feel scared when I see that it’s raining again, because the ground is still soaked,” said 45-year-old Petropolis resident Rodne Montesso, whose house was not at risk from the latest rains. “I think of the families who live in neighborhoods where many people have already died and I get desperate.”
Amid fears that the death toll could climb, firefighters and volunteers on Thursday scrambled through the remains of houses — many of them in impoverished parts of the city.
As rescue helicopters flew overhead, residents shared stories about loved ones or neighbors swept away.
“Unfortunately, it is going to be difficult to find survivors,” Luciano Goncalves, a 26-year-old volunteer, told Agence France-Presse, completely covered in mud.
“Given the situation, it is practically impossible, but we must do our utmost, to be able to return the bodies to the families. We have to be very careful because there are still areas at risk” of fresh landslides, he added.
A total of 24 people have been rescued, while the number of missing is murky due to many of the dead bodies not yet having been identified.
Globo TV has reported the number of missing at 41.
So far, 850 displaced people have been relocated to makeshift shelters, the vast majority of them in public schools.
About 500 firefighters, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, dogs, bulldozers and dozens of aircraft participated in the rescue.
The rains were the latest in a series of deadly storms — which experts say are made worse by climate change — to hit Brazil in the past three months.
Charities have called for donations of mattresses, food, water, clothing and masks.
Rio de Janeiro Governor Claudio Castro said the streets of Petropolis resembled “a scene from a war,” adding that these were the heaviest rains to hit the region since 1932.
The “historic tragedy” was made worse by “deficits” in urban planning and housing infrastructure, Castro said.
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