World | Other World Stories
Brazil landslides kill 84 and leave towns isolated
Isolated towns in southern Brazil appealed for medicine and other supplies on Tuesday as the deaths from landslides rose to 84 and thousands of people remained cut off from aid, clean water and power.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:02 November 27, 2008
Rio De Janeiro: Isolated towns in southern Brazil appealed for medicine and other supplies on Tuesday as the deaths from landslides rose to 84 and thousands of people remained cut off from aid, clean water and power.
Days of heavy rain have devastated areas of Santa Catarina state, the heartland of German and Italian immigrants in Brazil, burying houses and their residents in rivers of mud, collapsing roads and forcing more than 54,000 people out of their homes.
Another 30 people were missing and eight areas remained completely cut off, the civil defence agency said, as medicine, food, and other basic supplies began to arrive from the federal government and neighbouring states.
"We had a tsunami of clay, mud and trees," seamstress Josiane Malmann told Globo TV after being rescued by helicopter with a group of 200 people who were trapped in Ilhota. "Many people and children died ... The hills all fell in an avalanche."
Five hundred soldiers were sent to Blumenau where 13 people were killed by landslides and drinking water was expected to be cut off until tomorrow. Blumenau was the town with the worst death toll so far, of 20.
"Mattresses, food, blankets - these are the main necessities we need to look after our displaced people," said Joao Paulo Kleinubing, the town mayor.
Risk remains
"There is still a risk of landslides if it rains again so we are telling people in risky areas to leave their houses and seek shelter."
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has offered all available federal help to the state, one of Brazil's wealthiest, and sent several ministers to the affected areas to assess their needs on Tuesday.
The civil defence agency said that 14,500 gallons of drinking water had been distributed but appealed for more donations of water as the most urgent priority.
Blumenau was one of five towns to declare a state of emergency in the Itajai valley, the worst affected area in the state whose main river rose 36 feet and swept away its banks.
The state government said the floods and mudslides had affected 1.5 million people, leaving about 150,000 without electricity.
Rescue workers and army troops were using helicopters and motor boats to reach stranded residents, with transport in the state paralysed as many main roads were cut off.
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