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Three firemen pulled a man’s body from the mud amidst the rubble of houses swept away in a landslide in southeastern Brazil, where 30 people died and 39 were still missing on Tuesday after torrential rains.<\/p>\n
A river burst its banks and streets became raging currents of brown water in the state of Minas Gerais after the overnight downpour in a region that has seen record rain this month.<\/p>\n
State firefighters said 30 people had died in the cities of Juiz de Fora and Uba. More than 200 people have been rescued.<\/p>\n
Firefighters and sniffer dogs worked to find the 39 people still missing in the debris.<\/p>\n
In a hillside neighborhood of Juiz de Fora, 12 houses were swept away in a “massive landslide,” Major Demetrius Goulart of the fire brigade told AFP.<\/p>\n
“Many people were inside their homes at night when it was raining,” he said.<\/p>\n
Wilton Aparecido de Souza sobbed as he spoke of his 20-year-old son trapped in the debris.<\/p>\n
“He was a good boy, he had just finished his military service and he wanted to buy a motorcycle,” the 42-year-old told AFP.<\/p>\n
“At least find his body, so I can give him a proper burial.”<\/p>\n
– Teddy bears in the rubble –<\/p>\n
Silence hung heavy among dozens of onlookers in the rare moments that the excavators’ engines stopped, broken only by the barking of a panicked dog.<\/p>\n
“Almost everyone buried in this mud is family; there’s my sister, my niece,” said Cleiton Ronan, a 32-year-old warehouse worker.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the fire brigade’s Goulart said a boy aged around 10 had been pulled alive from the rubble after a two-hour rescue effort, and many expressed hope that their loved ones would still be found alive.<\/p>\n
But, “the longer it goes on, the slimmer the chances of finding survivors become,” Paulo Roberto Bermudes Rezende, a state civil defense coordinator, told AFP.<\/p>\n
Volunteers with shovels came to help the firefighters.<\/p>\n
“When I dug up children’s belongings — balloons, teddy bears — it broke my heart. I’m a father too… I’m trying to help however I can,” said Atila Mauro, a 33-year-old bricklayer.<\/p>\n
– Record rainfall –<\/p>\n
The state fire brigade said the rainfall had led to flooding and landslides, while images shared on social media showed buildings collapsing.<\/p>\n
Juiz de Fora’s Mayor Margarida Salomao declared a state of emergency.<\/p>\n
“Our focus is to guarantee humanitarian assistance, the restoration of basic services, aid to displaced people, and support for reconstruction,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Salomao said her municipality of a little over half a million people was experiencing its wettest February on record, with 584 millimeters (23 inches) of accumulated rainfall.<\/p>\n
Some neighborhoods are isolated, with at least 20 landslides, Salomao said, calling the situation “extreme.”<\/p>\n
Her office said that an estimated 440 people had to leave their homes and were receiving support for temporary shelter.<\/p>\n
State authorities suspended classes in all municipal schools.<\/p>\n
Brazil has suffered various tragedies in recent years due to extreme weather events ranging from floods to drought and intense heat waves.<\/p>\n
In 2024, more than 200 people died and two million were impacted by unprecedented flooding in southern Brazil, one of the worst natural disasters in its history.<\/p>\n
Two years earlier, a deluge in the city of Petropolis outside Rio de Janeiro left 241 people dead.<\/p>\n
Experts have linked most of these events to the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n
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