Storms, landslides kill at least 20 in Brazil
AT LEAST 20 people were killed in storm and heavy rain in southeastern Brazil where rescue workers in Brazil were racing against the clock to help victims yesterday.
With more rain predicted, the deluge pounded the states of Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo, where authorities described a chaotic situation due to flooding.
The death toll rose there from four to 12 yesterday as rescuers advanced.
The most affected municipality is Mimoso do Sul, a town of almost 25,000 inhabitants located in the south of Espirito Santo, where at least 10 people died in floods, though officials fear the toll may yet rise.
State Gov. Renato Casagrande described the situation as “chaotic,” saying that so far it has not been possible to assess the damage in some of the more isolated areas, with fears the toll could yet rise.
At least eight people have been killed in the neighboring state of Rio de Janeiro, officials said, most of them caused by landslides.
Four of the deaths in Rio state occurred when the storm caused a house to collapse in the city of Petropolis, 70 kilometers (45 miles) inland from the capital.
Search teams rescued a girl buried for more than 16 hours there. Her father, who was found dead next to her Saturday, had “heroically protected the girl with his body,” a neighbor told the Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The deluge came as Brazil, South America’s largest country, suffers through a recent string of extreme weather events, which experts say are more likely to occur due to climate change.
Such environmental tragedies “are intensifying with climate change,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, adding that thousands had been left homeless by the storm.