The heavy rains that fell in the Brazilian city of Petrópolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, on Tuesday and the consequent floods have left more than a hundred dead, dozens missing, houses and streets destroyed.
According to the State Department of Civil Defense, until the end of the night of Wednesday the 16th, the death of 104 people had been registered.
“It was like a scene from a horror movie,” dentist Lucas Ribas described to BBC Brazil what he witnessed in Petrópolis. “In the center of the city there were many bodies, many dead that were washed away by the raindrowned, crowded somewhere or trapped in cars.”
“I found a girl who was buried alive,” Wendel Pio Lourenco, a 24-year-old neighbor, told the AFP agency.
They were the most intense rains since 1932, reported the state governor, Cláudio Castro. And the city council declared a state of public calamity in the face of severe flooding and landslides.
Reports from the city indicate that rescuers spent Tuesday night and all of Wednesday helping families and looking for victims in the rubble.
In the videos shared on social networks, the scale of the damage can be seen: dozens of houses completely destroyed and vehicles floating. Some streets of the historic center were destroyed, making traffic impossible.
The volume of water accumulated in the city reached this Tuesday 259 millimeters in just six hours, according to Climatempo. The value exceeds what was expected for the entire month of February: 238.2 millimeters.
According to the newspaper O Globo, data from the National Center for Monitoring and Warning of Natural Disasters (Cemaden) indicate that for at least 90 years Petrópolis does not face such intense rains in 24 hours like Tuesday.
The municipal Civil Defense argued that the storm was caused by “the passage of a cold front through the ocean, together with the instabilities generated by daytime heating, plus the availability of moisture.”
The rains caused flooding and landslides in various parts of the city.
The storm wreaked havoc in various parts of the city. According to the government of Rio de Janeiro, 89 areas were affected, with 26 landslides.
“It’s very sad, people can’t sleep. They keep searching, screaming for their loved ones, it’s very complicated, we feel it too,” Márcia Barbosa told the BBC.
Another neighbor, Kaua Dantas, explained: “A long time ago they warned us that there was going to be a great tragedy, but no one ever believed it, no one ever paid attention, because it always rains a lot, a lot.
“But it has never rained as much as it does now. Then all of a sudden, in just five minutes it was heavy enough to cause this catastrophe here.”
“It was all very fast”
The storm culminated in a devastating scenario in Petrópolis. In several videos that circulate on the internet you can see images of trees, appliances, furniture and vehicles being swept away during the flood.
The newspaper Tribuna de Petrópolis reported that a large rock that rolled down a hillside fell onto a nearby road, which has interrupted traffic to the city.
Countless houses were damaged. In some, residents lost all appliances and furniture, while in others the building itself was devastated by the rains.
“I have lost everything, there is nothing. It took everything. I don’t know what we are going to do from now on, because the rock there is almost falling once more. If it falls, it will take longer,” said a affected.
According to the Rio de Janeiro government, at least 372 people were left homeless or displaced in the city.
Local businesses were also affected and many were left under water. In videos that circulate on the networks, you can see several flooded establishments.
“I was in the gym and it started to flood. I felt like I had to get out of there. It never stopped raining. When I saw the street, it looked like a very deep river because there was so much water. The water got into the back of the gym, he destroyed everything and threw the equipment in half from the street”, explains university student Vinícius Magini.
Dentist Lucas Ribas says he and other employees fought to save equipment at the office where he works. “It all happened very quickly, like a mud tsunami. When we saw it, it was a little bit of water coming into the office, then it became a lot of water, then it started to overflow and it became a flood.”
In the midst of the storm, countless people disappeared. There are records of searches of residents of different ages, from children to the elderly.
There are reports of people who would have taken the water, others who would be in regions that were buried and people who were in vehicles that were carried away by the flood.
According to local authorities, there are no official figures of missing persons in the city.
Firefighters work to rescue victims of the tragedy.
Without answers, relatives look for news through social networks. In some posts made on Tuesday, you can see updates from relatives celebrating that the person has been found well. In others, however, it is confirmed that the person was one of the victims of the consequences of the storm.
At the city’s Medical Legal Institute (IML), relatives seek answers regarding the disappeared.
“I saw the arrival of three Civil Defense cars with bodies. It’s distressing,” says Analu Andrade. She is the cousin of an eight-year-old boy who was on a bus that was swept away in the flood.
“I went to the IML because a policeman saw my story (temporary Instagram post; in it, Anallu was looking for his cousin) and said that possibly my cousin was already found dead because they found a boy his age who looked like him, only that I mightn’t be sure. Knowing this, I arrived at the IML without any certainty if it was him or not,” says Analu.
authorities on site
Nowadays, regarding 400 firefighters They help with raids in different areas of the city.
The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro announced that it installed a working group with regarding 200 agentswith professionals such as forensic and criminal experts, papiloscopists, autopsy assistants and notaries to help identify victims.
“The Mayor’s Office of Petrópolis has all the teams mobilized to attend the events. People are welcomed at the support points that operate in the city’s schools,” the municipal government reported on its Facebook website.
“There the population receives the support of professionals from Social Assistance, Education, Health, in addition to Civil Defense, totally dedicated to dealing with cases with victims,” he added.
Last week, the Ministry of Civil Defense had prepared a plan of attention for the forecast of heavy rains. However, as there was not the expected volume of rain, the municipal government deactivated the alert on Monday.
But on Tuesday the volume of rains increased a lot, causing great damage.
Governor Castro and the president of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, André Ceciliano, traveled to the municipality to accompany the rescue efforts.
According to the governor, an amount of rain like this “virtually never seen in the city before”.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on an official visit to Russia, said on Twitter that he made phone calls to ministers to send aid to the victims.
Petrópolis, once the summer residence of a Brazilian emperor, is a popular tourist destination. But its location makes it prone to landslides.
The worst incident occurred in 2011, when more than 900 people died by landslides there and in neighboring cities.
Residents live in fear of new storms. The Secretary of State for Civil Defense warned that the municipality is still in an operational stage of crisis and advised the population to be attentive to the reports, since alerts regarding the situation can be updated at any time.
With information from Vinícius Lemos of BBC News Brazil.
