(Rio de Janeiro) The death toll from the floods and landslides that devastated the Brazilian city of Petropolis after torrential rains now stands at 165, authorities announced on Sunday.
Updated yesterday at 11:53 p.m.
Fresh storms have claimed at least two lives, emergency services in Espirito Santo state, which borders Rio de Janeiro state, where Petropolis is located, said.
One person was crushed to death by a collapsing wall in the town of Alegre and another was washed away while trying to recover a car in the town of Nova Venecia, authorities said.
Orange-clad rescue workers and residents searching for missing relatives continue to dig through piles of mud and debris in this southeastern city of 300,000, which Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has described as “a theater of war “.
PHOTO MAURO PIMENTEL, AGENCY FRANCE-PRESSE
Rescuers carry the body of a victim.
The number of missing has fallen as more bodies have been identified and families have found loved ones alive, police say, but the final toll, which continues to climb, remains uncertain.
But authorities said it was now unlikely that any survivors would be pulled from the rubble.
So far 124 bodies have been identified, including those of 28 children.
And more than 1,200 people were forced to evacuate their homes.
Pope Francis sent his condolences on Sunday after his Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
“I express my closeness to those affected in recent days by natural disasters,” he said, citing “devastated” Petropolis and Madagascar, recently hit by deadly cyclones.
“Lord, receive the dead in peace, comfort their family members and support those who offer help,” he added.
The violent thunderstorm that hit Petropolis, located 60 km north of Rio de Janeiro, on Tuesday is the latest in a series of deadly rains to hit Brazil, which experts believe are aggravated by climate change.
Over the past three months, more than 200 people have died in torrential rains, mainly in the states of Sao Paulo (southeast) and Bahia (northeast), as well as in Petropolis.
On Tuesday, torrential rains turned the streets of this tourist town into torrents of mud and caused landslides. Petropolis, the former summer residence of Brazil’s imperial court in the 19th century, received more rain than the average for an entire month of February.
The municipality has already found more than 300 vehicles washed away by the waters, “scattered across the city, blocking the streets and sidewalks or thrown into the waterways”, said the mayor’s office.