Death toll in Brazil floods touches 146
PETROPOLIS, BRAZIL: Rescue workers pulled more bodies on Saturday from the muddy wreckage left by devastating floods and landslides in the Brazilian city of Petropolis, where the death toll rose to 146, including 26 children.
In a dense fog, workers dug with spades and shovels through the rubble and muck as the search churned through its fifth day with little hope of finding more survivors.
An AFP photographer saw rescuers carrying out two recovered corpses in body bags in the hard-hit neighbourhood of Alto da Serra, as relatives sobbed in the street.
In the heart of the disaster zone, rescue workers occasionally blew loud whistles to call for silence and listen for signs of life.
But authorities say there is little hope at this point of finding survivors from Tuesday’s torrential rains.
The downpour turned streets to gushing rivers in the picturesque city in the southeastern mountains, and triggered landslides in poor hillside neighbourhoods that wiped out virtually everything in their path.
Officials say 24 people have been rescued alive, but that came mostly in the early hours after the tragedy. Rio de Janeiro state police said 218 people remained missing as of late Friday. Meanwhile, 91 of the 146 bodies recovered so far have been identified, according to the police.
Many of the missing may be among the unidentified bodies. But the numbers have been hazy, and it is difficult to know how high the death toll could go. President Jair Bolsonaro, who flew over the disaster zone Friday by helicopter, said the city was suffering from “enormous destruction, like scenes of war”.
Tuesday’s was the latest in a series of deadly storms to hit Brazil, which experts say are made worse by climate change.
In the past three months, at least 198 people have died in severe rains, mainly in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo and the northeastern state of Bahia, as well as Petropolis.