The death toll from the catastrophic floods caused by the torrential rains in Brazilwith rescue teams constantly removing corpses from huge volumes of mud in Petropolis.
Within six hours, in Petropolis it rained about the same amount as the precipitation of the whole of February at the historical average.
More than 500 firefighters, helicopters, construction machinery, specially trained dogs: the operation continues in the once summer imperial residence, although the hopes of finding survivors are almost completely dashed.
In the Alto Sera district, where mud engulfed nearly 80 homes, members of rescue teams carried in their hands yesterday morning two corpses placed in special bagsfound a photojournalist of the French Agency.
In the center, family members could not hold back their tears as rescue workers dug through the wreckage of a collapsed house, searching for the mother of four. The bodies of the father of both children have already been retrieved.
Just like in earthquake rescue operations, Rescue workers use whistles to send a message to those gathered to be quiet as they try to listen for signs of life.
“Like ants”
Authorities say the mountains of mud and debris are unstable. The searches are thus done only with individual tools and chainsaws in the places where access is more difficult.
“It is impossible to bring heavy machinery up here, we have to work like ants”explained Hobertu Amaral, coordinator of the search and rescue team of the Petropolis fire brigade.
From the beginning of the investigations, 24 people were found alivebut mainly in the first hours after the disaster.
President Zaich Bolsonaro, who inspected the affected areas from the air, described what he saw as “war scenes”.
The number of missing remains unclear. Police said Friday that they had received information about 218 missing persons, but did not say whether that number included the bodies of unidentified victims or people found in the meantime.
For the time being, 91 of the 146 bodies recovered have been identified. 90 of the victims were buried in the largest cemetery in Petropolis, the 44 yesterday Saturday.
Life is slowly beginning to return to a somewhat smoother pace in the tourist city. So far, only supermarkets and pharmacies are open. Employees try to clean up other department stores.
A bookseller found that all her stock was destroyed. “She was in the basement. “The water reached the roof,” explained Sandra Corea Netu, 52. “We can not even give them away, they have been destroyed.”
Brazil has been hit by extremely deadly rainy weather this season – in the states of Bahia (northeast), Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo (southeast) – which experts link to climate change and global warming.
Source: News Beast
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