mrmcdonaldduck
January 14th, 2011, 05:32 AM
BRAZIL is suffering the "worst natural disaster" it has ever seen after mudslides and flooding near Rio killed nearly 500 people, according to national media.
The news website G1, part of Brazil's biggest media group Globo, said 480 people had died in the disaster - surpassing all previous recorded death tolls from weather-related catastrophes.
It was notably worse than a 1967 mudslide disaster in a coastal town called Caraguatatuba which was "up until now seen as the biggest in Brazil", G1 said.
Agence France-Presse's tally has risen progressively, based on revised tolls obtained directly from municipal officials in two of the worst-hit towns, Teresopolis and Petropolis. It stood at more than 440 late Thursday - above the highest estimate for Caraguatatuba.
But destroyed roads and bridges and a damaged telephone system made independent confirmation of Brazilian media counts in several other towns and villages impossible.
Freakish storms on Wednesday dumped the equivalent of a months' rain in just a few hours, sending mudslides and fierce torrents slicing through towns and hamlets, destroying homes, roads and bridges and knocking out telephone and power lines.
The death toll was expected to rise further as rescuers arrived in remote hamlets, many cut off to all but helicopter access.
"One woman tried to save her children but her two-month-old baby was carried away by a torrent like a doll," sobbed Angela, a 55-year-old resident of Teresopolis who saw the destruction.
Tropical rains common at this time of year intensified unimaginably as a cold front moved in, unleashing the tragedy before dawn, while families slept in their homes.
"In eight hours... it rained as much as for the entire month," said Paulo Canedo, a hydrologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
The deluge "caused avalanches of rocks and soil that carried everything down with them, picking up houses," he said.
As weather forecasters warned of more rain in the hours and days ahead, rescuers and desperate residents dug through rubble and mud looking for survivors or bodies.
Churches and police stations were turned into makeshift morgues, the smell of decomposing corpses heavy in the warm air.
Firemen saved a six-month-old baby and the 25-year-old father buried in mud in each others' arms. The father, Wellington, told the G1 news website his wife and mother-in-law died when mud swamped their home.
The scenes of crumbled towns and the stench of death, though, transformed the Serrana, a popular getaway for wealthy Rio residents drawn to cooler temperatures and its history as a vacation destination for 19th century nobility.
The disaster also provided the first big test for Dilma Rousseff, who took power on January 1. Her government has released $US470 million ($473 million) in initial emergency aid and sent seven tonnes of medical supplies.
But her failure to make any public statement or emotional display immediately following the catastrophe contrasted with the style of her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who cultivated a gruff and gregarious father image.
Brazil recorded 473 deaths for all of last year from heavy rains.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/nearly-400-dead-in-brazil-flood-disaster/story-e6frfkyi-1225987531052#ixzz1B0KGWr2K
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Damn, I thought we had it bad here in Australia, but jeez, in Brasil it's worse.
Eu sei que todo vai ser bom.
The news website G1, part of Brazil's biggest media group Globo, said 480 people had died in the disaster - surpassing all previous recorded death tolls from weather-related catastrophes.
It was notably worse than a 1967 mudslide disaster in a coastal town called Caraguatatuba which was "up until now seen as the biggest in Brazil", G1 said.
Agence France-Presse's tally has risen progressively, based on revised tolls obtained directly from municipal officials in two of the worst-hit towns, Teresopolis and Petropolis. It stood at more than 440 late Thursday - above the highest estimate for Caraguatatuba.
But destroyed roads and bridges and a damaged telephone system made independent confirmation of Brazilian media counts in several other towns and villages impossible.
Freakish storms on Wednesday dumped the equivalent of a months' rain in just a few hours, sending mudslides and fierce torrents slicing through towns and hamlets, destroying homes, roads and bridges and knocking out telephone and power lines.
The death toll was expected to rise further as rescuers arrived in remote hamlets, many cut off to all but helicopter access.
"One woman tried to save her children but her two-month-old baby was carried away by a torrent like a doll," sobbed Angela, a 55-year-old resident of Teresopolis who saw the destruction.
Tropical rains common at this time of year intensified unimaginably as a cold front moved in, unleashing the tragedy before dawn, while families slept in their homes.
"In eight hours... it rained as much as for the entire month," said Paulo Canedo, a hydrologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
The deluge "caused avalanches of rocks and soil that carried everything down with them, picking up houses," he said.
As weather forecasters warned of more rain in the hours and days ahead, rescuers and desperate residents dug through rubble and mud looking for survivors or bodies.
Churches and police stations were turned into makeshift morgues, the smell of decomposing corpses heavy in the warm air.
Firemen saved a six-month-old baby and the 25-year-old father buried in mud in each others' arms. The father, Wellington, told the G1 news website his wife and mother-in-law died when mud swamped their home.
The scenes of crumbled towns and the stench of death, though, transformed the Serrana, a popular getaway for wealthy Rio residents drawn to cooler temperatures and its history as a vacation destination for 19th century nobility.
The disaster also provided the first big test for Dilma Rousseff, who took power on January 1. Her government has released $US470 million ($473 million) in initial emergency aid and sent seven tonnes of medical supplies.
But her failure to make any public statement or emotional display immediately following the catastrophe contrasted with the style of her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who cultivated a gruff and gregarious father image.
Brazil recorded 473 deaths for all of last year from heavy rains.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/nearly-400-dead-in-brazil-flood-disaster/story-e6frfkyi-1225987531052#ixzz1B0KGWr2K
________________________________________________________
Damn, I thought we had it bad here in Australia, but jeez, in Brasil it's worse.
Eu sei que todo vai ser bom.