Rescuers retrieve more bodies days after Brazil storm
Rescue workers pulled more bodies Saturday from the muddy wreckage left by devastating floods and landslides in the scenic Brazilian city of Petropolis, where the death toll stands at 136, including 26 children.
In a dense fog, rescue workers dug with spades and shovels through the rubble and muck as the search entered its fifth day.
An AFP photographer saw rescue workers carrying out two recovered corpses in body bags in the hard-hit neighborhood 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, which turned streets to gushing rivers in the picturesque city in the southeastern mountains and triggered landslides in poor hillside neighborhoods that wiped out virtually all in their path.
© MAURO PIMENTEL
In a dense fog, rescue workers sort through the rubble and muck on February 19, 2022 as the search following landslides and flooding in Petropolis, Brazil entered its fifth day
Officials say 24 people have been rescued alive, but that was 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 136 bodies recovered so far have been identified.
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.
The dead include 26 minors so far, said the police.
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 -- which experts say are made worse by climate change -- to hit Brazil in the past three months.
At least 188 people have died in severe rains, mainly in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo and the northeastern state of Bahia, as well as Petropolis.
jhb/bfm
Officials say 24 people have been rescued alive, but that was 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 136 bodies recovered so far have been identified.
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.
The dead include 26 minors so far, said the police.
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 -- which experts say are made worse by climate change -- to hit Brazil in the past three months.
At least 188 people have died in severe rains, mainly in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo and the northeastern state of Bahia, as well as Petropolis.
jhb/bfm
By MAURICIO SAVARESE and DIARLEI RODRIGUES
1 of 19
A resident stands on property destroyed by mudslides on the second day of rescue efforts in Petropolis, Brazil, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Deadly floods and mudslides swept away homes and cars, but even as families prepared to bury their dead, it was unclear how many bodies remained trapped in the mud. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
PETROPOLIS, Brazil (AP) — The death toll from floods and landslides that swept down on the mountain city of Petropolis rose to at least 117 on Thursday and local officials said it could still rise sharply, with 116 more still unaccounted for.
The Rio de Janeiro state government confirmed the rising loss of life, with many feared buried in mud beneath the German-influenced city nestled in the mountains above the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Torrents of floodwaters and mudslides dragged cars and houses through the streets of the city Tuesday during the most intense rainfall in decades. One video showed two buses sinking into a swollen river as its passengers clambered out the windows, scrambling for safety. Some didn’t make it to the banks and were washed away, out of sight.
Survivors dug through the ruined landscape to find loved ones even as more landslides appeared likely on the city’s slopes. A small slide Thursday prompted an evacuation but didn’t cause injuries.
A resident helps on the second day of rescue efforts. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
As evening came, heavy showers returned to the region, sparking renewed concern among residents and rescue workers. Authorities insisted those living in at-risk areas should evacuate.
Rosilene Virginia’ said her brother barely escaped, and she considers it a miracle. But a friend hasn’t yet been found.
“It’s very sad to see people asking for help and having no way of helping, no way of doing anything,” Virginia told The Associated Press as a man comforted her. “It’s desperate, a feeling of loss so great.”
As some people tried to clear away mud, others began burying lost relatives, with 17 funerals at the damaged cemetery.
Identification numbers are lined up at the Municipal Cemetery for the burials of mudslide victims. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
PETROPOLIS, Brazil (AP) — The death toll from floods and landslides that swept down on the mountain city of Petropolis rose to at least 117 on Thursday and local officials said it could still rise sharply, with 116 more still unaccounted for.
The Rio de Janeiro state government confirmed the rising loss of life, with many feared buried in mud beneath the German-influenced city nestled in the mountains above the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Torrents of floodwaters and mudslides dragged cars and houses through the streets of the city Tuesday during the most intense rainfall in decades. One video showed two buses sinking into a swollen river as its passengers clambered out the windows, scrambling for safety. Some didn’t make it to the banks and were washed away, out of sight.
Survivors dug through the ruined landscape to find loved ones even as more landslides appeared likely on the city’s slopes. A small slide Thursday prompted an evacuation but didn’t cause injuries.
A resident helps on the second day of rescue efforts. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
As evening came, heavy showers returned to the region, sparking renewed concern among residents and rescue workers. Authorities insisted those living in at-risk areas should evacuate.
Rosilene Virginia’ said her brother barely escaped, and she considers it a miracle. But a friend hasn’t yet been found.
“It’s very sad to see people asking for help and having no way of helping, no way of doing anything,” Virginia told The Associated Press as a man comforted her. “It’s desperate, a feeling of loss so great.”
As some people tried to clear away mud, others began burying lost relatives, with 17 funerals at the damaged cemetery.
Identification numbers are lined up at the Municipal Cemetery for the burials of mudslide victims. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Rio police said in a statement Thursday that about 200 agents were checking lists of the living, the dead and the missing by visiting checkpoints and shelters, as well as the city’s morgue. They said they managed to remove three people from a list of missing after finding them alive in a local school.
“Every detail is important so we can track people,” said Rio police investigator Elen Souto. “We need people to inform the full name of the missing person, their ID, physical traits and the clothes that person was wearing.”
Petropolis, named for a former Brazilian emperor, has been a refuge for people escaping the summer heat and tourists keen to explore the so-called “Imperial City.”
Its prosperity has also drawn residents from Rio’s poorer regions and the population grew haphazardly, climbing mountainsides now covered with small residences packed tightly together, often in areas made more vulnerable by deforestation and inadequate drainage.
The path of a mudslide marks a hillside once filled with homes. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
The state fire department said 25.8 centimeters (just over 10 inches) of rain fell within three hours on Tuesday -- almost as much as during the previous 30 days combined. Rio de Janeiro’s Gov. Claudio Castro said in a press conference that the rains were the worst Petropolis has received since 1932.
“No one could predict rain as hard as this,” Castro said. More rain was expected through the rest of the week, according to weather forecasters.
Castro added that almost 400 people were left homeless and 24 people were recovered alive. They were fortunate, and they were few.
Lisa Torres Machado, 64, said “the hand of God” spared her family from tragedy.
A resident stands on property destroyed by mudslides on the second day of rescue efforts. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
“A little room was left at my mom’s house and she hid there with my two sisters and brother,” Machado, a resident of Petropolis for three decades, told the AP. “I can’t sleep. I still can’t believe what’s happening. We lost all our friends.”
The stricken mountain region has seen similar catastrophes in recent decades, including one that caused more than 900 deaths. In the years since, Petropolis presented a plan to reduce risks of landslides, but works have advanced only slowly. The plan, presented in 2017, was based on analysis determining that 18% of the city’s territory was at high risk for landslides and flooding.
Residents help rescue workers on the second day of efforts to find survivors and victims after deadly mudslides. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Local authorities say more than 180 residents who live in at-risk areas were sheltering in schools. More equipment and manpower was expected to help rescue efforts on Thursday.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro expressed solidarity while on a trip to Russia. Petropolis’ city hall declared three days of mourning for the tragedy.
Southeastern Brazil has been punished with heavy rains since the start of the year, with more than 40 deaths recorded between incidents in Minas Gerais state in early January and Sao Paulo state later the same month.
Relatives of 54-year-old woman Zilmar Batista, who died in the mudslides, attend her burial. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
___
Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. AP videojournalist Mario Lobão contributed from Petropolis.
AP journalist Debora Alvares contributed to this report from Brasilia.
Volunteer logistics whizzes race to aid Brazil storm victims
Following deadly storms in Brazil, charities have sprung up overnight to help survivors locate the aid they need: food, water and clothing
Following deadly storms in Brazil, charities have sprung up overnight to help survivors locate the aid they need: food, water and clothing
(AFP/CARL DE SOUZA)
Joshua Howat Berger
Fri, February 18, 2022
Clothing donations have flooded into Brazil's disaster zone, but underwear is in short supply. Enter the volunteer logistics masterminds racing to find out what those left homeless by this week's deadly storms actually need -- and get it to them.
Tuesday's torrential rains and the deadly floods and landslides they triggered have turned the scenic mountain city of Petropolis into what numerous officials, including President Jair Bolsonaro, describe as a "war zone."
Teams of rescue workers are knee-deep in mud and rubble searching for landslide victims, anguished families sobbing for their lost loved ones are an all-too-common sight, and the mangled remains of cars washed away in flash floods are strewn around the city.
Residents like lawyer Daniel Vasconcellos have responded by setting up overnight charities resembling wartime supply operations.
When Vasconcellos and his law partner, Bernardo da Silva Oliveira, saw that authorities and established charities were not getting their neighbors the help they needed, they turned their offices into the headquarters of a massive aid effort.
Outside their offices in the hard-hit neighborhood of Chacara Flora, a long human chain passes packages of bottled water from hand to hand at rapid speed.
Inside, the floor is stacked high with clothing, food, hygiene products, diapers and myriad other necessities for people who lost everything.
"When the landslides hit, we and a lot of others rushed to help people trapped in the mud and rubble," says Vasconcellos, 28.
But once rescue workers and the army arrived at the scene, "we saw people needed another kind of help," he told AFP.
Donations started pouring in from all around Brazil as news of the tragedy spread. But he and Oliveira saw a gap between what people were getting and what they needed.
"The official donation centers are full, but sometimes they're not getting to the people up there in hillside neighborhoods who are waiting for a family member's body to be found," says Vasconcellos.
As natives of the neighborhood, they knew what was needed: motorcycles.
In the poor hillside communities around Petropolis -- the scenes of the deadliest landslides -- "there are a lot of places where cars can't go, only a motorcycle can get there," says Oliveira, 29.
"We go all the way to the top of the mountain."
Joshua Howat Berger
Fri, February 18, 2022
Clothing donations have flooded into Brazil's disaster zone, but underwear is in short supply. Enter the volunteer logistics masterminds racing to find out what those left homeless by this week's deadly storms actually need -- and get it to them.
Tuesday's torrential rains and the deadly floods and landslides they triggered have turned the scenic mountain city of Petropolis into what numerous officials, including President Jair Bolsonaro, describe as a "war zone."
Teams of rescue workers are knee-deep in mud and rubble searching for landslide victims, anguished families sobbing for their lost loved ones are an all-too-common sight, and the mangled remains of cars washed away in flash floods are strewn around the city.
Residents like lawyer Daniel Vasconcellos have responded by setting up overnight charities resembling wartime supply operations.
When Vasconcellos and his law partner, Bernardo da Silva Oliveira, saw that authorities and established charities were not getting their neighbors the help they needed, they turned their offices into the headquarters of a massive aid effort.
Outside their offices in the hard-hit neighborhood of Chacara Flora, a long human chain passes packages of bottled water from hand to hand at rapid speed.
Inside, the floor is stacked high with clothing, food, hygiene products, diapers and myriad other necessities for people who lost everything.
"When the landslides hit, we and a lot of others rushed to help people trapped in the mud and rubble," says Vasconcellos, 28.
But once rescue workers and the army arrived at the scene, "we saw people needed another kind of help," he told AFP.
Donations started pouring in from all around Brazil as news of the tragedy spread. But he and Oliveira saw a gap between what people were getting and what they needed.
"The official donation centers are full, but sometimes they're not getting to the people up there in hillside neighborhoods who are waiting for a family member's body to be found," says Vasconcellos.
As natives of the neighborhood, they knew what was needed: motorcycles.
In the poor hillside communities around Petropolis -- the scenes of the deadliest landslides -- "there are a lot of places where cars can't go, only a motorcycle can get there," says Oliveira, 29.
"We go all the way to the top of the mountain."
- 'We go to them' -
They started with two motorcycles, using social media to spread the word and collect donations from family and friends.
The operation soon snowballed.
As it grew, they sought to do a better job matching donations to people's needs than groups using official channels.
At first, with their electricity and water cut off, residents' most urgent need was bottled water.
Now, they need to change clothes, their babies' diapers and brush their teeth.
"Sometimes people receive a donation and they end up throwing it away," says Vasconcellos.
"We go to them and say, 'What do you need?' If we don't have it, we go to the supermarket and get it."
The biggest needs right now? Baby bottles, milk and underwear, they say.
Father Moises Fragoso de Sousa is heading another massive logistics operation at the Santo Antonio church, which sits in front of Morro da Oficina, sight of the deadliest landslide.
The square outside the church is an anthill of activity, with about 100 volunteers racing to sort and deliver donations for the community and 200 newly homeless people sheltering inside.
"We started with a very improvised structure, but we're getting better organized by the day," says the 35-year-old priest.
"People's volunteer spirit has been incredible to see. It's the biggest labor force in this tragedy."
jhb/sst
They started with two motorcycles, using social media to spread the word and collect donations from family and friends.
The operation soon snowballed.
As it grew, they sought to do a better job matching donations to people's needs than groups using official channels.
At first, with their electricity and water cut off, residents' most urgent need was bottled water.
Now, they need to change clothes, their babies' diapers and brush their teeth.
"Sometimes people receive a donation and they end up throwing it away," says Vasconcellos.
"We go to them and say, 'What do you need?' If we don't have it, we go to the supermarket and get it."
The biggest needs right now? Baby bottles, milk and underwear, they say.
Father Moises Fragoso de Sousa is heading another massive logistics operation at the Santo Antonio church, which sits in front of Morro da Oficina, sight of the deadliest landslide.
The square outside the church is an anthill of activity, with about 100 volunteers racing to sort and deliver donations for the community and 200 newly homeless people sheltering inside.
"We started with a very improvised structure, but we're getting better organized by the day," says the 35-year-old priest.
"People's volunteer spirit has been incredible to see. It's the biggest labor force in this tragedy."
jhb/sst
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