Rio de Janeiro: Driving rains sent tons of rusty red earth sliding into mountain towns, killing at least 257 people and leaving dozens more missing - lives rescuers hope to save when they resume searches Thursday.
In the hardest-hit town of Teresopolis, where the local civil defense agency said at least 130 people died, hundreds of family members crowded around the town's morgue Wednesday night waiting to identify bodies.
Before rescue attempts were called off because of darkness, searchers used heavy machinery, shovels and bare hands trying to find survivors. How many were saved was not known.
In one town, firefighters rescued a 25-year-old man who held his 6-month-old son for 15 hours until they were both pulled out alive. The man's wife and mother-in-law were feared dead.
Heavy rains and mudslides kill hundreds of people across Brazil each year, especially during the South American summer. The worst hit are the poor, whose rickety homes are often built on steep slopes with weak or no foundations.
In Teresopolis, 40 miles (65 kilometres) north of Rio de Janeiro, deluges filled creeks and the overflows swept over already water-logged mountainsides. Brick and wooden shacks built on hillsides stripped of trees washed away in surging earth and water, leaving behind only a long trail of mud.
The mountains saw 10 inches (26 centimetres) of rain fall in less than 24 hours.
Floodwaters continued to gush down the mountains for hours after rainstorms ended Wednesday.
