Death toll from Brazil floods rises

Rescue workers in Brazil braced for more rain on Friday as they struggled to reach areas cut off by massive floods and landslides that look certain to have killed more than 500 people.

Brazilian television showed the deluge sweeping away luxury villas and poor neighbourhoods alike, presenting Dilma Rousseff, the country’s new president, with her first major social challenge since taking office on January 1.

“In just over 24 hours, we had 270mms of rain when the average for this area for the whole of January is 208mms – that’s why we’ve had this huge tragedy,” Camila Ramos, a meteorologist at weather agency Climatempo, told the Financial Times on Thursday. She warned that more rains were expected today and in the coming weeks.

The storms are part of the La Niña weather pattern that is creating havoc as far afield as the Australian state of Queensland.

But loss of life due to flooding and mudslides is becoming a regular occurrence in Brazil’s main cities, leading to growing accusations of irresponsible planning by city authorities.

Last April, 180 people were killed in Rio when the worst rainstorm in 44 years swept away the city’s precarious hillside shanties. The city’s infrastructure has come into focus since it was selected to host the 2014 World Cup final and 2016 Olympic Games.

“The tragedy in Rio’s mountainous region is due to a blend of natural catastrophe and public irresponsibility and ignorance,” wrote commentator Gilberto Dimenstein on the website of newspaper Folha de São Paulo on Thursday.

He said the Regional Council of Engineers and Architects in Rio had issued repeated warnings against illegal construction in the hills surrounding the nation’s tourist capital.

“For the past two years, it has been warning cities about the dangers of illegal construction but without any effect,” he said.

President Rousseff was due to fly over the worst hit areas on Thursday. She has pledged R$780m ($467m) in emergency funds for rescue and reconstruction.

The worst hit towns were Teresopolis, about one hour away from Rio in the mountains, and nearby Nova Friburgo.

In São Paulo, Brazil’s financial and industrial capital, and the surrounding state, heavy rains have killed another 13 people and disrupted transport infrastructure.

Rescue workers used boats to move around the city of Franco da Rocha, which was flooded after authorities were forced to release water from a nearby dam to prevent it from overflowing.

Unlike in previous disasters, the disaster also devastated rich areas, wiping out luxury villas and catching the families of multimillionaires in their sleep.

The Atlantic forests of the mountains of south-east Brazil are characterised by shallow topsoil resting on hard bedrock. When this becomes waterlogged, huge landslides are common as the soil slides down the bedrock.

Unlike in Australia, the floods have so far mostly affected urban areas with few reports of major damage to crops.

But meteorologists maintained heavy rain warnings on Thursday, particularly for south-east Brazil.

“We are attributing this weather to La Niña – usually it affects Brazil by causing below-average rainfall in the south and above average rain in the south-east,” said Ms Ramos of Climatempo.