Death toll from Tuesday’s heavy rains that caused landslides and floods in a hilly town in the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil has risen.
Tuesday’s storms dumped 258 millimetres of rain on the city in three hours, nearly equal to all the rainfall from the previous month, the mayor’s office said. It is the latest in a series of deadly storms to hit Brazil in the past three months, which experts say are being made worse by climate change.
Petropolis and the surrounding region were previously hit by severe storms in January 2011, when more than 900 people died in flooding and landslides.
While rescue operations continue, over 94people have now been confirmed dead, with at least 24 people rescued alive, according to the state government. An initial 18 people had been reported dead because of the heavy rains.
With 35 people still reported missing, fears that the death toll could climb further sent firefighters and volunteers scrambling through the remains of houses washed away in torrents of mud, many of them in impoverished hillside slums.
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The Rio de Janeiro Fire Department had reported that more than 180 firefighters were dispatched to Petropolis, to search for survivors in the town.
Reacting to the development, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently in Russia on a trip he planned before the Ukraine crisis arose tweeted “May God comfort the family members of the victims.
He said he had asked his ministers to deliver immediate support to those affected.
Experts say rainy season downpours are being augmented by La Nina — the cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean — and by the impact of climate change.
Using dogs, excavators and helicopters, more than 180 firefighters and other rescue workers were responding to the emergency, aided by 400 soldiers sent in as reinforcements.
According to officials, around 300 people were being housed in shelters, mostly in schools. This is even as Charities called for donations of mattresses, food, water, clothing and face masks for victims.
“It looks like a scene from a war. It’s incredible,” Governor Claudio Castro said, adding that it was the worst rain since 1932.
While City Hall declared a “state of disaster” in the city of 300,000 people, which sits 68 kilometres north of Rio, the city council declared three days of mourning for victims.
Story was adapted from TRT world.
