At Least 20 Church of God Members Die In Brazil Floods
David Ramirez, field director for the Church of God in South America, reports on the recent devastating floods in Brazil.
At least 381 people have died as a result of the rains deluging the mountainous region of the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, authorities said Thursday, January 13.
The number of fatalities was released by the municipal authorities of Teresopolis, Nova Friburgo and Petropolis, the cities most severely affected by rain-driven mudslides.
In Nova Friburgo, the number of dead stands at 168, a toll that includes three firefighters who were participating in rescue efforts, according to the latest municipal bulletin.
Teresopolis emergency services chief Flavio Luiz de Castro announced that 161 people are confirmed dead in his town, located 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Rio de Janeiro city.
Another 39 people are reported to have died in the municipality of Petropolis and 13 more are confirmed fatalities in the Sumidouro area.
The searches for people who have gone missing are continuing without pause in Nova Friburgo and Teresopolis; while in Petropolis they were resumed on Thursday after having been suspended the previous night due to lack of light and the difficulty of getting access to the most heavily affected areas.
The death toll could rise further because firefighters are pushing forward with the search for victims and the missing and the rains are also continuing.
On Thursday morning, it began to rain again, but not with the same intensity as earlier in the week and there were no new mudslides. Meteorologists predict that the rains will continue for the next few days, at least.
Firefighters so far have not managed to get to Campo Grande, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Teresopolis that was completely cut off by mudslides and where authorities calculate that the storms have affected around 2,000 homes.
About 1,000 firefighters, police and other public employees are participating in the rescue work, and they are being supported by seven helicopters, two of them provided by the navy, which announced on Thursday that it will set up a field hospital in Nova Friburgo.
Many of the neighborhoods of the affected cities remained incommunicado due to the landslides and rescue workers were trying to open up routes through tons of mud to help the victims and begin the search for the bodies of the dead.
State Gov. Sergio Cabral, who was on vacation abroad with his family when the tragedy began to unfold but says he intends to overfly the region on Thursday, issued an urgent call for emergency teams, helicopters and heavy equipment to remove mud and rubble.
Cabral said that he spoke by telephone with President Dilma Rousseff, who is also scheduled on Thursday to overfly the affected areas and promised to urgently send “all available aid.”
The federal government announced that it will release some 780 million reais ($461 million) to deal with the emergency.
Schools in the most affected cities were converted into improvised shelters for the survivors and for numerous families who lost their homes and have no place to go.
Thursday’s newspapers were full of criticism of authorities for not taking preventive measures in the face of the repeated disasters of this kind that historically have occurred in the state at this time of year.
In January 2010, at least 75 people died in mudslides in different parts of Rio de Janeiro state, including several of the areas that are now once again buried in mud.
