Videos published by São Paulo Roads Department and by the State government show the destruction of the Dr. Manoel Hyppólito Rego, known as Rio–Santos, which connects the capital of Rio de Janeiro to Santos, on the coast of São Paulo. There was a landslide and a barrier collapse at kilometer 174, in the Juquehy region.
In these images made by drone, it is possible to observe the size of the damage and the affected stretch of the Rio–Santos, the SP-055, informed the DER, when publishing the video.
SP 055 Rio-Santos Highway Teams continue to work at the sites where barriers and trees fell in the Juquehy region (km 174+500). Through the monitoring carried out by our drone, it is possible to observe the size of the damage and the stretch reached. pic.twitter.com/90hHlgARUz
— DER-SP (@_dersp) February 20, 2023
The government of São Paulo also published a video with aerial images of kilometer 174 of Rio–Santos.
???? NOW: Aerial footage shows the extent of the damage on the Rio-Santos Highway (SP 055), in the Juquehy region (km 174+500) #EmergenciaLitoralNorte pic.twitter.com/DLxBGczhwO
— Government of S. Paulo (@governosp) February 20, 2023
On Monday the 20th, the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, said that a section of the Rio–Santos highway may have disappeared. “A volume of earth was displaced to such an extent that we even hypothesize that the highway was dragged along with it”, declared the governor, after flying over the region.
After the rains, which started on Saturday, Tarcísio declared a state of public calamity on Sunday the 19th in the cities of Ubatuba, São Sebastião, Ilhabela, Caraguatatuba and Bertioga.
The governor temporarily transferred his office to São Sebastião, the most affected city in the region. In 18 hours, between Saturday and Sunday, it rained 683 millimeters in the municipality. The average for the entire month of February is 300 millimeters.