Shocked residents urged to evacuate after fresh heavy rain forecast
PETRÓPOLIS, Brazil: Ahead of more heavy rain, residents of several neighbourhoods in the devastated Brazilian city of Petropolis were called to evacuate Thursday, just two days after flash floods and landslides killed 117 people.
Sirens warned neighbourhoods in the hillside tourist town to leave, with residents still shocked from the rivers of mud that buried homes and swept away cars and trees. At least two streets were already closed after landslides containing “rocky blocks.”
The new rainfall comes with dozens still reported missing in the city, located some 60 kilometres north of Rio de Janeiro, and as the first funerals of identified victims took place.
Text messages warned residents to take refuge at relatives’ homes or in public shelters “due to the volume of rain affecting the city, which will continue, with an intensity between moderate to strong, in the next few hours,” the local Civil Defense said.
“I feel scared when I see that it’s raining again, because the ground is still soaked,” said 45year-old Petropolis resident Rodne Montesso, whose house was not at risk from the latest rains.
“I think of the families who live in neighbourhoods where many people have already died and I get desperate.”
Amid fears that the toll could climb, firefighters and volunteers scrambled through the remains of houses Thursday – many of them impoverished slums.
As rescue helicopters flew overhead, residents shared stories about loved ones or neighbors swept away.
“Unfortunately, it is going to be difficult to find survivors,” Luciano Goncalves, a 26-year-old volunteer, told AFP, completely covered in mud.
“Given the situation, it is practically impossible. But we must do our utmost, to be able to return the bodies to the families. We have to be very careful because there are still areas at risk” of fresh landslides, he added. A total of 24 people have been rescued, while the number of missing is murky due to many of the dead bodies not yet having been identified. Globo TV has reported the number of missing at 41.
So far, 850 displaced people have been relocated to makeshift shelters, the vast majority of them in public schools.
Some 500 firefighters, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, dogs, bulldozers and dozens of aircraft participated in the rescue.
The rains were the latest in a series of deadly storms – which experts say are made worse by climate change – to hit Brazil in the past three months.
Charities have called for donations of mattresses, food, water, clothing and face masks.
Governor Claudio Castro of Rio de Janeiro state said the streets of Petropolis resembled “a scene from a war,” adding these were the heaviest rains to hit the region since 1932.
City hall declared a state of disaster and three days of mourning.