SAO SEBASTIAO – Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva yesterday toured a resort region turned disaster zone where torrential rains killed at least 40 people just as the country’s famed carnival celebrations were held, with dozens remaining missing.
Rescue workers were racing to find any survivors buried under the mud and rubble after 24 hours of record rain over the weekend triggered violent floods and landslides that devastated the area around the popular beach city of Sao Sebastiao, around 200km southeast of Sao Paulo.
As emergency crews slowly cleared roads of boulders and mud that had cut off access to the region, residents told journalists harrowing stories of losing almost everything to the crush of earth and floodwater Sunday at dawn.
“We heard this terrifying noise of trees falling and glass breaking. The water swept right through the bathroom window – it just exploded,” Vanesa Cristina Caetano said in the beachside neighbourhood of Juquehy, in Sao Sebastiao.
“We heard the water rushing down, along with lots of trees and rocks. It nearly swept the house away. We ended up with water up to my shoulders,” said the 41-year-old domestic worker, who managed to escape with her husband and two children.
Some told how whole families had dug frantically through the debris to rescue trapped relatives, while others told of losing their homes and all the inside.
“I’m so disoriented I don’t even know what to do. I lost everything,” said Patricia da Silva, a 31-year-old domestic worker.
“Everything was buried. We couldn’t save anything.... I’m just happy I managed to get out with my kids” aged 9 and 15, she said.
Lula vowed the federal government’s support for reconstruction efforts, and issued an appeal to stop building on low-lying areas and hillsides vulnerable to such disasters, which are frequent in Brazil.
“It’s important for people not to build more houses in places that could fall victim to more rains and landslides that claim yet more lives,” said the 77-year-old leftist leader, who took office for a third term last month.
An estimated 9.5 million of Brazil’s 215 million people live in areas at high risk of flooding or landslides – often impoverished favelas.
Lula made the comments in a news conference in Sao Sebastiao, a city of about 90,000 people, after flying over the area, where aerial images showed brown flood waters engulfing houses just inland from the emerald waters of the region’s pristine coastline.
The Sao Paulo state government said the death toll stood at 40, with 39 people killed in Sao Sebastiao, and a girl killed in the city of Ubatuba, just up the coast. But there are fears the toll will rise.
“Around 40 people have still not been located,” Sao Paulo Rescue Department official Michelle Cesar told CNN Brasil.
Amid the loss and destruction, authorities said a boy aged 2 was rescued from a sea of mud, as was a woman who was giving birth.
More than 1,700 people were evacuated, while 766 lost their homes, authorities said. – AFP, February 21, 2023
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