More Than Two Dozen Dead After Heavy Rains Cause Flooding, Landslides in THIS Country
26 Dead After Heavy Rains Cause Flooding, Landslides in THIS Country
Brazilian authorities said on Sunday that at least 26 people died in two cities in north Sao Paulo state amid floods and landslides, and this number could still rise.
The cities of Sao Sebastiao, Ubatuba, Ilhabela and Bertioga, some of the hardest hit and now under state of calamity, canceled their Carnival festivities as rescue teams struggle to find missing, injured and feared dead in the rubble.
The damage caused by severe rainfall in Ilhabela, Brazil. (Image: Reuters)
TV and social media footage from the town of San Sebastiao showed entire neighborhoods under water, debris from hillside houses swept away by oozing earth, flooded highways and cars destroyed by fallen trees, among other damage.
Another 228 people were left homeless and 338 were evacuated in the coastal region north of the city of Sao Paulo, the state government said in a statement, as rescue crews raced to help those hit by the storm.
The authorities did not give a figure for how many people were missing.
San Sebastiao, 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Sao Paulo and where many people from the city spend the pre-Lenten holiday weekend, was one of the hardest hit, as a record 60 centimeters (nearly a foot) of rain fell in 24 hours, city officials said.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Twitter he will visit the region on Monday.
Sao Paulo state government said in a statement that precipitation in the region has surpassed 600 millimeters in one day, one of the highest amounts ever in Brazil in such a short period.
