Brazil | Petropolis flood death toll rises to 104

(Petropolis) At least 104 people died in floods and landslides in Petropolis, Civil Defense announced, two days after the heaviest rains in 90 years in this Brazilian tourist city threatened Thursday by new heavy rainfall.

“At this stage we have registered 104 deaths and the firefighters have found 24 survivors,” said the Civil Defense of this locality located 60 km north of Rio, in southeastern Brazil.

In the streets of Petropolis, overflown by rescue helicopters, many residents spoke on Thursday morning of missing relatives or neighbors, whose number officially stands at 35, noted an AFP journalist.

Firefighters worked through the night from Wednesday to Thursday in the city of 300,000 people, but had to stop for a few hours due to unstable waterlogged ground.

But the situation threatens to get worse. The civil defense issued a notice of “new heavy rains (Thursday) in the evening or next night” and warned that “new alerts can be issued at any time”.

“Worst rains since 1932”

In the event of heavy rains, “people in high-risk areas must seek refuge in a safe place”, warned the Civil Defense, adding that 33 schools were hosting the victims.

The still provisional toll had increased hour by hour on Wednesday, after torrential rains which transformed the picturesque streets of the center into rivers of mud, flattened houses and overturned dozens of cars.

Petropolis received more rain in a few hours on Tuesday evening than the average for an entire month of February, according to the meteorological agency MetSul.

The governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Claudio Castro, estimated during a press conference on the spot that it was about “the worst rains since 1932”.

Brazil has been hit this rainy season by particularly severe rainfall – in the states of Bahia (northeast), Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo (southeast) – which experts have linked to global warming.

“War Zone”

With global warming, the risk of heavy rainfall events increases, according to scientists. These rains, associated in particular in Brazil with an often wild urbanization, favor floods and deadly landslides.

More than 180 firefighters were in Petropolis, along with some 400 military personnel, scouring the muddy earth in this mountain town that was the summer residence of the former imperial court fleeing Rio’s heatwave in the 19th century.

The most affected neighborhood is Alto da Serra, a hill that many families had to descend in tears on Wednesday, carrying the meager belongings they were able to save, AFP journalists noted.

“All the people in the street say it looks like a war zone,” said Wendel Pio Lourenço, a 24-year-old resident who has been helping with the rescue since the day before.

“I found a little girl engulfed in the mud”, says the young man, who carries a television set towards a church serving as a refuge.

The mud buried houses and torn sheet metal roofs littered the ground everywhere.

three days of mourning

Cars, swept away by rivers of mud, found themselves with their wheels in the air or piled up on other vehicles. Shops were inundated by the water which rushed down the streets of the historic center of Petropolis.

“I don’t want to see any more rain in my life,” said Jeronimo Leonardo, 47, who fled his house threatening to collapse.

The town hall of Petropolis decreed a “state of calamity” and a three-day mourning.

Petropolis, with its opulent old houses, is a destination that attracts a large number of tourists in search of history, hiking in green nature and a temperate climate.

In January 2011, more than 900 people died due to flooding and landslides in a vast region near Rio including Petropolis and the neighboring towns of Nova Friburgo, Itaipava and Teresopolis.

New drama of wild urbanization

The tragedy of Petropolis, a tourist town near Rio de Janeiro where dozens of people died after torrential rains, once again highlights the risks of uncontrolled urbanization, with precarious dwellings built on the hillside.

The most affected area is the Alto da Serra district, located on the heights, not far from the historic center of the city which was the summer residence of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil in the 19th century.

A densely populated district, with modest houses stuck to each other, along very narrow and steep streets.

All of these homes were built – most without building permits – on hillsides, and nearly 80 of them were swallowed up by landslides on Tuesday.

However, Michel Mendonça, a 35-year-old mechanic, was unaware of living in a risk zone.

“I built this house myself, ten years ago, and I would never have imagined such a disaster,” he told AFP, while sweeping away the thick layer of mud in front of his house, which was relatively spared.

“I still had 40 cm of water in my workshop, downstairs, but that’s nothing compared to those who have lost loved ones,” he tempers.

According to him, the authorities have never alerted the inhabitants to the slightest risk since he has lived in the neighborhood.

“The poor are neglected, they are always the last informed, only at the time of disasters. The rains are a natural phenomenon, but the authorities are also responsible,” he summarizes.

“I slept peacefully”

Regina dos Santos Alvalá, deputy director of the Center for Monitoring Natural Disasters (Cemaden), believes that “despite some progress in recent years”, Brazil still has a lot to do to reduce the risks associated with natural disasters.

“There have been advances in monitoring, issuing alerts, but other aspects need to be improved, with housing policies that reduce the vulnerability of the poorest. We must also better preserve the native vegetation “which serves as a barrier to landslides, she believes.

“We can’t avoid the rain, but we have to limit its impact,” insists this specialist.

According to her, 9.5 million people in Brazil currently live in so-called “at risk” areas, particularly vulnerable to flooding or landslides. Most live in favelas, without mains drainage.

“I bought my house here in 1996 and never worried. I slept peacefully, I did not see the danger,” says Sheila Figueira, another resident of Alto da Serra.

The mudslide rolled down a few meters from his two-story house. She sees firefighters digging up bodies from her balcony.

“I don’t know if I will be able to stay here, but my house is very special to me. I fought to buy it, ”explains this 59-year-old saleswoman.

” No choice ”

Same story for Rafael de Matos, whose yellow-walled house, just below that of Sheila Figueira, was also spared, a few meters away.

“I was born here and grew up in this house built by my father in the 70s. At the time, it was one of the tallest houses in the neighborhood, but today it is one of the tallest. bass. There have been many other constructions, higher and higher (in the hill), in recent years, ”explains this 38-year-old hairdresser, pointing to the high area reached by the mudslide.

“It is always the poor who end up being exposed to this kind of risk. With the coronavirus crisis, poverty has gained ground and some people who did not live in risk areas have had to relocate there, because they had no choice,” says Estael Sias, from the Metsul Meteorological Agency.

“Beyond weather issues, the fact that these are often illegally occupied areas is another risk factor,” she concludes.