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Around 1,000 left homeless as torrential rainstorms trigger mudslides in mountaintop towns near Rio de Janeiro
At least 237 people, including three rescue workers, have been killed following some of the worst landslides in Rio de Janeiro's history.
Torrential rainstorms, which began yesterday, triggered a series of deadly mudslides in at least three mountaintop towns to the north of the city. Dozens of people were buried alive as they slept, among them children.
The worst hit area was Teresópolis, a popular hillside tourist town around 60 miles north of Rio where at least 122 residents were buried under vicious cascades of terracotta mud and debris. Around 1,000 people were left homeless as the waters smashed through the town, destroying homes, power lines and roads.
Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, is expected to visit the flood-hit region tomorrow while the government this evening announced a R$700m (£265m) aid package to help those forced from their homes.
TV images showed terrified residents fleeing the region on foot or in cars and pleading with authorities for assistance. "Ask for help. There's nothing we can do. There are many families buried," one woman, in floods of tears, told a reporter from Globo television as she abandoned her home.
Speaking after a helicopter flight over Teresópolis, Rio's environment secretary Carlos Minc described the mudslides as the worst catastrophe in the region's history. "I believe the death toll is much higher than has been so far announced," he said. "Many people died in their sleep. The mountainsides are coming down. The areas are very unstable."
Fernanda Carvalho, a 27-year-old maid from the region, told the G1 news website that the disaster had drawn no distinction between rich and poor. "The rich man's house, the poor man's house. Everything was destroyed," she said.
Helicopter images showed at least two stranded locals desperately waving white shirts in a bid to be rescued. Nearby, a thick brown scar had been ripped through one residential area on the town's outskirts, uprooting trees and demolishing everything in its path.
Two other tourist destinations in the same region, Petrópolis and Nova Friburgo, were also badly affected with 25 deaths reported there. In Nova Friburgo, where a month's worth of rain fell in 24 hours, at least three firemen were killed when their vehicle was buried under falling debris.
The latest mudslides to hit Rio follow similar disasters last April, when several inner-city favelas were destroyed by the rains. In the worst incident over 200 people were buried alive when the Morro do Bumba shantytown in Niteroi, over the bay from Rio, collapsed following heavy rain.
South-eastern Brazil is used to heavy rains in January, but this year's weather has been unusually harsh. At least 13 people died on Tuesday in São Paulo state as small towns and even parts of central São Paulo were transformed into murky, fast-flowing rivers. Waterlogged motorways in Brazil's economic capital ground to a halt.
This afternoon, as hundreds of rescue workers scrambled to reach the affected areas in Rio, recriminations had already begun as to who was responsible for the high death toll.
Minc told the BBC's Brazil service that politicians had to shoulder their share of the blame for encouraging the illegal occupation of hillsides.
GUARDIAN
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