RIO DE JANEIRO: More than 500 people died in mudslides and floods near Rio de Janeiro this week, officials on Friday told media, which classed it as the worst disaster in Brazil’s history.
Municipal officials in towns in the mountainous area hit by the catastrophe counted 506 deaths, according to a compiled tally by news websites UOL and other major outlets.
Leading broadcaster GloboNews and UOL said the disaster in the Serrana region was the worst ever to hit Brazil, surpassing a 1967 mudslide calamity in a coastal town called Caraguatatuba in which 436 people perished.
It was feared the death toll from the mudslides in the Serrana, just north of Rio, could climb further as rescuers made their way into cut-off villages.
Storms early Wednesday dumped the equivalent of a month’s rain in just a few hours before dawn in the region, sending mudslides slicing through towns and hamlets, destroying homes, roads and bridges and knocking out telephone and power lines.
The worst affected towns were Teresopolis, Novo Friburgo and Petropolis.
The death toll from the disaster was higher than the 473 rain-related deaths recorded for all of Brazil over the span of 2010.
