Extraordinary rains bring historic floods to Rio de Janeiro -- at least 200 lives lost

At least 200 buried, feared dead in Rio mudslide

Play Video AP  – Rio flood toll tops 100 as record downpours ease

• Slideshow:Rio de Janeiro Flooding
• Play Video Video:Raw Video: Brazil mudslides kill scores AP
• Play Video Video:Rio cleans up as rain continues Reuters

AP – Firefighters search for victims in a landslide at the Morro do Bumba area of the Niteroi neighborhood, …
 

by BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press, April 8, 2010

[Readers, bear in mind that in most of Brazil the cities do not invest in adequate sewer or drainage systems in spite of constant flooding.  This particular disaster has broken all records for floods in Rio de Janeiro which suffered a disastrous flood in the 1960s.  Once the national capital of Brazil was relocated to Brasília, the city of Rio de Janeiro began to decline with respect to maintaining many important cultural, environmental, and educational aspects.  Funds are allocated for improvements but most funds "disappear."  The once fabulously beautiful Bay of Guanabara teaming with dolphins has become a black deoxygenated stinking cesspool due to the raw sewage that flows into it.  The famous Copacabana Beach is heavily polluted with garbage.  At the moment, the flood waters are backing up due to the increasing high waves coming in from the ocean, which are predicted to be even higher in the coming days.  The municipal governments could have done a lot over the past 40 years to improve things, but instead the monies went elsewhere to make the rich even richer, at the expense of everyone and everything else.  Corruption is beyond the imaginings of people from the Northern Hemisphere who have never lived here and observed first hand what is really going on.  I actually love Rio de Janeiro -- it is a center for a richness and tradition of art, literature, theatre that is a precious world treasure.  But the politicians literally couldn't care less.] 

RIO DE JANEIRO – At least 200 people were buried and feared dead under the latest landslide to hit a slum in Rio de Janeiro's metropolitan area, authorities said Thursday.
If confirmed, the deaths would raise the toll sharply from the 153 people already known to have died this week in slides triggered by record rains.

Pedro Machado, subsecretary of Rio state's Civil Defense department, told Globo TV that as many as 60 houses and at least 200 people were buried in the Morro Bumba slum in Niteroi, neighboring Rio.

"In our experience, it's an instant death" for those caught in their homes at the time, Machado said.
Machado said the shantytown was built on a mountain of trash that accumulated for decades, making the ground there unstable and vulnerable to giving way.

Sergio Cortes, Rio state health secretary, said that when he climbed the hill where the landslide took place, "I could see I was standing above garbage."

"The residents began to say there was a landfill there that had not been used for more than 20 years, and that the houses were built there," Cortes said.

A fire department spokesman said six bodies had been found so far in the Morro Bumba and 28 were rescued after the mudslide hit late Wednesday.

Alves Souza, commander of the firefighters in the Niteroi rescue operations, said the wet, steep terrain posed a continued threat to anyone trapped in the wreckage and emergency crews as well.

"The work is very intense, given the fact that the volume of material we have here is very large," Souza said.
Record rainfall since Monday afternoon has triggered deadly mudslides across Rio's metropolitan area.

Firefighters said the official death toll stands at 153, but that does not include those buried in Morro Bumba.

Nearly all the deaths occurred in mudslides that smashed through slums — yet another reminder that life in one of the world's most famous playgrounds is much different for the poor than it is for the rich.

Residents of the shantytowns often endure dangers such as the frequent shootouts between police and heavily armed drug gangs, and when heavy rain falls on slopes crowded with poorly built shacks, nature itself can deal out death.

Rio officials said they are going to step up forced evictions of slum residents living in at-risk areas.

Click image to see photos of mudslide in Rio de Janeiro

AFP

Mayor Eduardo Paes announced that 1,500 families were going to be removed from their homes on in at least two Rio slums, and that more evictions were likely.

"I don't want to spend next summer sleepless, worrying if the rains are going to kill somebody," he told reporters, without saying when the relocations would occur.

The heavy rains plunged Rio into chaos this week, knocking down trees and power lines, opening up enormous craters in streets and sending wastewater flowing down to the city's white sand beaches, and it was nearly impossible to get anywhere in the city of 6 million people.

In the Rocinha slum, officials said 16 inches (41 centimeters) of rain has fallen so far this month — three times the amount normally expected for all of April. Similar figures were seen across Rio's metropolitan area.

Rio state Civil Defense said at least 11,000 people were forced from their homes. Officials said potential mudslides threatened at least 10,000 houses in the city.

Link:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100408/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_flooding