Brazil landslides death toll rises (1 month's rain in a day, 443+ killed & 1,000s left homeless)

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

More than 400 killed and thousands left homeless after mud devastates three towns north of Rio de Janeiro

Tom Phillips in Teresópolis | Friday 14 January 2011

The death toll from some of the deadliest landslides in Brazilian history continued to rise tonight with at least 443 confirmed victims.

Nearly all of those killed were buried alive when avalanches of mud and debris smashed down on to their homes in the early hours of Wednesday. At least 13,000 people have been left homeless by the disaster, which focused on three towns in the mountains north of Rio de Janeiro.

"It is a very dramatic moment. The scenes are very powerful, the suffering is very visible and the risk is very serious," Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, said after a brief visit to the affected region today.

Teresópolis, a bucolic tourist town about 60 miles north of Rio, was one of the hardest-hit areas: by tonight, at least 200 deaths had been confirmed. Local authorities were preparing to erect floodlights in the cemetery in order to hold round-the-clock burials. The town's streets filled with pick-up trucks packed with fleeing residents, carrying mattresses, duvets and pets.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/13/brazil-landslides-death-toll-rises1

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Survivors give terrifying accounts of disaster: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/13/brazil-landslide-survivors-worst-disaster?intcmp=239

Video: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/jan/13/brazil-mudslides-rio-de-janeiro-video

Interactive map: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/jan/13/brazil-landslides-floods-map

Photo gallery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/jan/12/brazil-landslides-leave-hundreds-dead#/?picture=370544777&index=0

CNN International article, videos & photo gallery: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/01/13/brazil.flooding/index.html

BBC article & video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12180079

Article & video report from Sky News: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Brazil-Floods-In-Brazil-Leave-More-Than-440-People-Dead-With-Teresopolis-Worst-Hit/Article/201101215894003?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15894003_Brazil:_Floods_In_Brazil_Leave_More_Than_440_People_Dead_With_Teresopolis_Worst_Hit


Unseasonally heavy rains caused large sections of hillside to fall on some of the villages north of Rio de Janeiro


An aerial view of Teresopolis, one of the most damaged areas

[uppityperson]

1. k&r, thanks for posting all the links.

[Turborama]

2. You're most welcome. Thanks for the K&R

The videos are well worth watching to get the full impact of what's been happening there.

[Stumbler]

3. Not good

Doesn't matter if you live at the bottom of the hill or the top, both are equally screwed...

[1776Forever]

4. This is terrible news - Along with floods in Sri Lanka and Australia - Terrible!

January 13, 2011, 8:35 PM ET Jan. 14: Updates From the Australia Floods

http://blogs.wsj.com/dispatch/2011/01/13/jan-14-updates-from-the-australia-floods/

............

Sri Lanka flooding forces more than 300,000 to flee homes. Mudslides bring death toll to 21 as government says more than 1 million people affected by rains.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/13/sri-lanka-floods-people-flee-homes

........

K&R

[CLANG]

5. I hope the US will help.

If that ain't a freeper challenge, nothing is.

[TheMadMonk]

6. Seems like a lot of people are getting a month's rain in a day...

...this past year.

I'm no statistitian, but it seems like Pakistan + India + China + Australia + Guatemala + this (not just uncommon events, but entirely unprecedented in most cases) comes in well above the odds.

Something I read the other day, even suggested that more than a few climatologists have for the first time, pointed directly at the Qld floods and confidently declared, "Yup, that one belongs to Global Climate Change." Not the usual, "statistically more than normal but we can't assign blame for any one event" But a died in the wool "Hey guys, wake up and smell the cordite" smoking gun.

[Violet_Crumble]

9. I read somewhere that Brazil's having the same weather pattern thingy as us...

I did think that how it worked was that eastern Australia cops the severe flooding and South America gets extreme drought, but I must have read it wrong...

[Nihil]

7. Those photos are amazing ...

The first one looks like it's been clawed by some monstrous beast!
:wow:

[Turborama]

8. Brazil landslides: president visits scene as death toll continues to rise (527 so far)

More than 500 people are known to have died in Brazil after torrential rains sent avalanches of mud and debris smashing on to towns in a mountainous area outside Rio de Janeiro.

The official death toll has reached 527 in what is being described as one of the country's worst natural disasters, and rescuers have yet to reach some of the worst-hit areas – including one neighbourhood where 150 houses were reportedly swept away. The toll seems certain to rise considerably.

Nearly all of those killed were buried alive when avalanches of mud and debris fell on to their homes in the Serrana region in the early hours of Wednesday. At least 13,000 people have been left homeless.

It is an immediate crisis for Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, who took over from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a fortnight ago. After a brief visit to the affected region yesterday, Rousseff called the disaster an act of God, but said the tragedy could not be blamed on nature alone.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/brazil-landslides-death-toll-president

[Turborama]

10. Brazilian landslides bring anger in their wake

In the devastated countryside around Rio de Janeiro, the anger is growing. Late on Friday, many survivors of the floods and mudslides that have killed more than 500 Brazilians over the past week were still begging officials for aid.

Four nights of torrential rain have brought tragedy to these rural communities, and the authorities' response has sometimes been lumbering. In Teresópolis, a quiet hilltop town 60 miles north of Rio, criticism is mounting of the government's efforts to rescue victims still stranded on remote hillsides and to find the bodies of the dead.

In despair, locals have taken it upon themselves to search for the corpses and help out the living. "The ones I've seen who go up there and really make the effort are all people from here," said Sergio Joaquín de Jesús, 48, a construction worker. He had just donated blood and was rounding up a crew of co-workers to dig for bodies this morning.

His wife's brother and sister were missing. But De Jesus said he planned to carry provisions up to people stuck high in the mountains.

"Imagine, human beings up there, with no food, no water, nowhere to sleep, in this weather. They're living like dogs," he said. "Where is the government? What are they still waiting for?"

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/15/brazilian-landslides-sri-lanka-australia

[rabs]

11. A faithful friend in Teresopolis

"Leao", sits for a second consecutive day, next to the grave of her owner, Cristina Maria Cesario Santana, who died in the week's catastrophic landslides in Brazil, at the cemetery in Teresopolis, near Rio de Janiero, on Saturday. Brazilians Saturday braced for more rain, fearing further landslides after walls of muddy water tore through towns and claimed some 550 lives in the country's worst flood disaster on record.
VANDERLEI ALMEIDA | AFP/ Getty Images


"Leao" in Portuguese = "Lion"

Death toll on Saturday was reported to be over 600 in Teresopolis and Novo Friburgo.