Brazil: More than 350 Die Due To Strong Rains

translated by Sam Mustafa, 13 January 2011. Tags: brazil, Heavy Rains, landslides, Mudslides

Brazilian authorities have announced that at least 355 people have died due to the rains in the mountainous region of the state of Río de Janeiro since Monday night.

According to the Brazilian Executive, the most affected cities are Teresópolis, Nova Friburgo, Petrópolis and Itaipava.

Rescue organisations and local authorities do not rule out that the number of fatal victims will still rise due to the indeterminable number of missing people in those areas.

Due to the strong rains that affected the state of Río de Janeiro there have been landslides and mudslides that have left many houses buried.

The size of the catastrophe is due to the fact that in one day; the state saw 84% of rainfall that it would see in a month.

The minister of National Integration, Fernando Becerra, affirmed that the event “is a tragedy of great proportions.”

In turn, the president Dilma Rousseff sent US$500m to help the victims and it is expected that she will fly over the disaster zone today.

This will be her first activity outside of the government house since she assumed the presidency on the 1st January.

The Head of State will be accompanied by the minister of the Secretary of Communication, Helena Chagas.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios.

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Brazil: More than 500 Deaths confirmed in Nation’s Worst Natural Disaster | The Argentina Independent says:

January 14, 2011 at 4:39 pm

[...] Heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in the mountains cities and towns in the state of Rio de J… [...]

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