The intense rains and the almost 200 landslides left at least 58 dead in the old imperial city of Brazil, Petrópoliswhere a race against time was waged to find possible survivors under the mud and debris.
“It’s almost like a war situation”said Cláudio Castro, governor of Rio de Janeiro (southeast), in the disaster zone, in the mountainous region of the state.
The government confirmed 58 deaths at the beginning of the afternoon, a figure that has grown incessantly with the passing of the hours, after the storm that occurred on Tuesday afternoon in the city located 68 km north of Rio.
According to local authorities, there were 189 landslides and floods, which left houses reduced to rubble on devastated hillsides and vehicles piled up in streets of water and mud.
Residents of Petrópolis try to rescue their assets. AP Photo
horror images
Videos viralized on social networks showed shocking images of some Petrópolis roads turned into fast-flowing rivers dragging everything as they passed.
Rescue teams were working at the scene to help those affected, AFP journalists confirmed.
Wendel Pio Lourenço, a 24-year-old resident, was walking with a television in his arms towards a nearby church in search of refuge, after leaving his house “condemned” by the stones that surround it.
Without having slept, he collaborated in the rescues and tried to save some belongings. “I found alive a girl who was buried”, he told AFP.
The Santo Antonio church, close to the disaster area, opened its doors to accommodate more than 150 peopleevacuated from their homes due to flooding or the danger of landslides due to the storm.
The natural disaster hit the ancient imperial city. AFP Photo
“Many of those who arrive have lost everything, or lost their relatives. It is a difficult situation”Celestino, the parish priest of the church, told AFP.
Until now, about 80 homes have been affected Damage was reported in the town of Morro da Oficina and in six other areas, the municipal authorities estimated in a note.
Some 300 people are being cared for mainly in schools, added the local government, which decreed a state of calamity.
Some 400 soldiers work in relief tasks at the scene along with Civil Defense teams and firefighters, with dogs, 4×4 vehicles, boats and a dozen aircraft, sources from the state firefighting force informed AFP.
“No one expected it, it was desperate, very sad. I have friends who are missing,” said Elisabete Pio Lourenço, 32. So far, the authorities have not reported the number of missing.
In Morro da Oficina, a neighborhood of Petropolis. Photo Reuters
Bolsonaro
During his visit to Russia, President Jair Bolsonaro wished that “God comfort the relatives” of the victims of the “catastrophe” in Petrópolis, during a joint press conference with the host, Vladimir Putin, whom he thanked for his solidarity in the face of what happened.
The Minister of Regional Development, Rogério Marinho, assured that the president will be “on site” on Friday.
Some points of Petrópolis rreceived up to 260 millimeters of rain in less than six hoursa volume higher than the historical average for all of February (240 mm), according to the MetSul weather agency.
“The accumulated rainfall (…) they are unusual“, Meteorologist Estael Sias pointed out in a note on the MetSul site, where she assures that this disaster “is neither the first nor will it be the last”, given the climatic, topographical and population characteristics of the region.
History
Brazil has lived in the last three months episodes of heavy rains, especially in the states of Bahia (northeast) and Minas Gerais (southeast), which have left dozens dead and caused damage to hundreds of municipalities.
Scientists argue that due to climate change, extreme weather events will become more and more frequent.
The rescue of victims in Petrópolis. Reuters photo
In January 2011 more than 900 people died in the mountainous region of the state of Rio due to heavy rains, which caused floods and landslides in a vast area, including Petrópolis and its neighbors Nova Friburgo, Itaipava and Teresópolis.
Petrópolis, with 300,000 inhabitants, it is a tourist city for its historical valuethe surrounding nature and a more pleasant climate compared to the coastal Rio de Janeiro, due to its height.
In the past it was the summer resort of the former Brazilian Imperial Court. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was a vital point on the road between Rio and Minas Gerais that charmed Emperor Pedro I with its climate and landscape.
The monarch purchased land to one day build his summer residence there. But it was finally his heir, Pedro II, who ordered the construction of the neoclassical building completed in 1862, where a museum now operates.
AFP Agency
PB
