Historic Brazil rains trigger 200 mudslides, destroying entire neighborhoods
By DANIEL MONNERAT
April 9, 2010 – 3:04AM Some 200 people were feared dead after being buried in mudslides near Rio de Janeiro, officials said Thursday, bringing new tragedy to Brazil following massive floods which have killed more than 150. “From what the neighbours said, some 200 people may be buried, but it is not clear, there could be more,” local fire chief Pedro Machado told AFP Thursday as crews battled to dig through mudslides in Niteroi, a city across the bay from the city of Rio. … But firefighters said there was little chance of finding survivors after part of the hillside fell away and slid some 700 meters (yards) swallowing everything in its path, including 50 houses, a day-care center and a pizzeria. The six confirmed deaths raised the death toll to 151 in floods and mudslides around Rio since it was hit Monday by the worst rains in half a century. Most of the casualties were trapped in landslides in the slums around Rio, a city of some 16 million people that will host the World Cup football tournament in 2014 and the 2016 Summer Olympics. … Flooding over the past days has been so intense that authorities urged residents to remain indoors. By Wednesday the rains had been begun to stop, providing hope the worst was over. Emergency officials said most fatalities were in hillside slums around the city of Rio de Janeiro and announced plans to try to evacuate tens of thousands of inhabitants fearing further loss of life. “People have nowhere to go, they’re all doomed,” Vinicius Gomes, the cousin of a landslide victim, told AFP. … Brazil had already seen deadly deluges in Sao Paulo earlier this year after the wettest summer in the region in more than six decades. National weather service Inmet said Tuesday’s rainfall was the heaviest in 48 years.
200 feared dead in Brazil mudslides
Writing by Brian Ellsworth, editing by Stuart Grudgings and Vicki Allen (Reuters) – Rescue workers scrambled on Thursday to find dozens of residents feared buried by a landslide near Rio de Janeiro as the death toll from heavy rains in and around Brazil’s second-largest city rose to 153. The heaviest rains in more than 40 years, which started on Monday, triggered close to 200 mudslides that crushed shacks in hillside slums, causing most of the deaths and leaving thousands of people homeless. … Authorities say at least 10,000 houses still are at risk of collapse and the national government has sent security forces to help with rescue operations. Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes has appealed to the federal government for 370 million reais ($208 million) in aid for emergency operations. Large waves pounded Rio’s scenic Copacabana beach as rains resumed and authorities warned people not to swim or surf until conditions returned to normal. Most of the damage was concentrated in slums where about a fifth of Rio’s people live, often in precarious shacks. Bumba Hill was built atop a former garbage dump. …
