Brazil flood death toll jumps to 335
Devastating mudslides and floods have killed at least 335 people in the mountainous area near Rio de Janeiro, according to reports.
[Readers, the situation is even worse than this article suggests. I'm watching the Brazilian national news right now, and I can honestly say that I have never seen something like this (although I think that what occurred in Pakistan must have been worse, of course) -- the hills in Rio state are basically large, solid and sort of smooth rocks (think Sugarloaf), and the layer of vegetation and dirt that covers them is just not that thick. The rain was excessive, and the vegetation and dirt just slid right down from these high hills. Brazil doesn't have the type of equipment to rescue and dig out all the many places that have been hit by landslides. One section of a main highway had 14 different landslides hit it.]
Three towns in the Serrana mountain region north of Rio were devastated as landslides destroyed homes, roads and power lines and buried families alive as they slept.
In Nova Friburgo, 87 miles north of Rio, the number of victims jumped from 97 to 155. The toll rose from 130 to 146 in Teresopolis, a city 62 miles outside Rio, and from 18 to 34 in neighbouring Petropolis, according to GloboNews.
Thousands of people in the region were cut off from electricity and telephone contact and around 1,000 were left homeless in Teresopolis alone, according to Jorge Mario, the town's mayor.
"It's the biggest catastrophe in the history of the town," he said, as he warned the death toll could rise further as rescue workers reach remote areas.
Television images showed scenes of devastation with cars submerged by water, buses and trucks with water up to their windows, homes destroyed and tearful survivors surveying the carnage.
One resident, a 55-year-old maid, described the scene as being "like a horror film" and said she saw a baby "carried away by a torrent like a doll" as the child's mother tried in vain to save it.
Sergio Cabral, the governor of Rio state, said that he had asked the Navy for helicopters to take rescue crews and equipment to the region, which was partially cut off from Rio by road.
The devastation on Wednesday came after 13 people were killed in Sao Paulo state on Monday and Tuesday after torrential rains, which flooded major roads in Sao Paulo, the state capital and Brazil's biggest city.
The government of President Dilma Rousseff made R$780m (£296m) available in emergency aid to help the affected regions.
Heavy rains are common in southeast Brazil during the country's summer season but have been unusually high this year even before the tragedies of this week.
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