- At least 67 people have died in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil after heavy rain and landslides.
- According to the reports, at least 80 houses were hit by a mudslide, and more than 300 people had to leave their homes.
- The bodies were found after the water level dropped in the flooded city center of Petrópolis.
In daylight on Wednesday (local time) the full extent of the destruction became visible. “In many places it was difficult to distinguish what was a house, what was a piece of land or what was a road,” wrote the news portal “G1” about the “city under mud”.
Slopes slid, cars were swept away by the water masses, roads were blocked: According to the meteorology broadcaster “Climatempo”, on Tuesday it had rained more in six hours than it normally does in February.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter that he learned about the tragedy that happened in Petrópolis in Moscow. He arrived in Russia on Tuesday for his visit and is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
The governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Claudio Castro, had appeared at a meeting in Petrópolis in the mountains behind Rio to determine the state government’s measures, according to a statement. “It’s almost a war situation,” Castro said, according to the statement. Due to its location and cool climate in the southern hemisphere, Petrópolis is also a popular holiday destination for the residents of Rio.
In the past few weeks, at least ten people have died from flooding and landslides in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais. There was also tragedy when a rock face fell on a tourist boat on Furnas Dam, killing ten people. It was unclear whether the heavy rain had also contributed to the loosening of a large part of the rock.
Before that, the state of Bahia, which borders Minas Gerais to the northeast, had experienced the worst flooding in over 30 years. More than 900 people died in a storm in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro in 2011. It was considered the worst storm disaster in the country’s history, which also particularly affected Petrópolis.