Landslides and floods that swept through southeastern Brazil have killed at least 50 people, according to the latest toll released by authorities on Thursday, the fifth day of search and rescue operations.

The fire brigade in Sao Paulo state continues to search, hoping to find some of the dozens of people still missing in San Sebastião, a hard-hit seaside resort 200 kilometers from the state capital of the same name.

“As time passes, the chances of finding the living decrease. But we continue the work” as long as there is the slightest hope, said a member of the rescue team.

The attention of rescue teams is focused on the Vila Sai district, where houses on a hillside were buried when they were hit by mudslides and rocks.

In 24 hours, more than 680 millimeters of rain fell in San Sebastián, in other words an amount twice the monthly average in this city, a destination for many during the carnival weekend. It was a national record, according to the state government in Sao Paulo.

The governor of Sao Paulo, Tarquisio de Freitas, admitted on Thursday that the SMS warning system did not prevent the tragedy. He promised that sirens would be installed in high-risk areas.

“2.6 million warning SMS were sent before the rains. And we saw that this was not effective. Here on the beach, over 30,000 people received warning SMS,” the governor said during a press conference.

Experts attribute the destruction, the abundance of this nature that the largest state in Latin America has experienced in recent years, to the consequences of climate change and uncontrolled urbanization.

9.5 million Brazilians live in areas exposed to the risk of landslides or flooding, many of them in favelas — slums — that lack basic infrastructure such as drainage, the country’s National Disaster Warning and Monitoring Center (Centro Nacional de Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters, CEMADEN).