(Sao Paulo) Landslides in southeastern Brazil have claimed 50 lives, according to a new report announced Thursday by the authorities, on the fifth day of research.
Sao Paulo state firefighters were still hard at work on Thursday hoping to find the dozens of people still missing in Sao Sebastiao, a seaside town particularly affected by bad weather, located 200 km from Sao Paulo. .
“The more time passes, the less chance we have of finding people alive. But we are still working towards this goal,” said a rescuer.
Rescuers mainly focused their search efforts on the Vila Sahy district, where several houses on the hillside were buried by a mudslide.
More than 680 millimeters of rain fell in 24 hours in Sao Sebastiao, more than double the monthly precipitation. A national record, according to the Sao Paulo state government.
The governor of Sao Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, admitted Thursday that the population alert system by text message had not made it possible to avoid the tragedy. The latter announced the installation of sirens in risk areas.
“2.6 million alerts were triggered before the rains by text message. And we saw that it was not effective. Here on the coast, more than 30,000 people have received the warning message,” the governor told a press conference.
Experts attribute these extreme events to a combination of the effects of climate change and uncontrolled urbanization.
In Brazil, 9.5 million people live in areas prone to landslides or floods, many of them in favelas lacking basic sanitation, according to the National Center for Monitoring and Warning of Natural Disasters (Cemaden ) from the country.