The death toll from landslides and floods in Petropolis, a popular tourist destination of 300,000 in a mountainous area 60 kilometers north of Rio de Janeiro, has risen to 136, according to Brazilian television network Globo, citing riot police.
The 22 of the victims were children, the network stressed.
As of yesterday, rescue teams had rescued 24 survivors from the wreckage.
Police said they had received information about 128 missing persons, but did not specify whether that number included the bodies of unidentified victims or people found in the meantime.
Of the approximately 80 homes damaged by the extreme weather, at least 54 were completely destroyed.
In Petropolis, on Tuesday, there was about the same amount of rain as the volume recorded on average throughout February, according to the meteorological service MetSul.
The governor of the state, Claudio Castro, said during a press conference on the spot on Wednesday that it was “the worst rains since 1932”.
Brazil has been hit by extremely deadly rainy weather this season – in the states of Bahia (northeast), Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo (southeast) – which experts link to climate change and global warming.
With climate change, the risk of extremes increases, scientists say. The rains, combined in Brazil with the often rapid and unplanned urbanization, favor deadly floods and landslides.
In January 2011, more than 900 people were killed in the highlands of the state of Rio de Janeiro due to floods and landslides in a large area that included the metropolis and the neighboring cities of Nova Friborgo, Itaipava and Teresopolis.
The death toll from Tuesday’s disaster is now almost double that of 2011 in Petropolis, when 73 people were killed.
The videos published on the internet capture the magnitude of the disaster and the dramatic moments that the residents experienced:
Deadly floods kill 98 in #Brazil. Scary scenes captured on cam!#CaughtOnCamera | #BrazilFloods pic.twitter.com/4u83jnSmCY
– DNA (@dna) February 17, 2022
Devastating floods and mudslides leave at least 94 dead in Brazil. The longer we wait to act on climate the more frequent and extreme these disasters will become.
No time to waste. #ActOnClimate #ClimateEmergency #climate #energy #Brazil pic.twitter.com/IVI26kvq2Z
– Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) February 17, 2022
Damn: #Brazil pic.twitter.com/I78TnQ7Eap
– Now HipHop News (@BenjaminEnfield) February 17, 2022
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