The heavy rains that hit the city of Petrópolis, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have so far left 94 people dead, official sources reported on Wednesday.
The governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Cláudio Castro, offered on Wednesday night the most recent balance on the tragedy in the so-called “imperial city”, and indicated that so far 94 deaths have been counted, while the number of missing is unknown. .
The Fire Department pointed out that it is impossible at the moment to determine the total number of victims and missing persons.
This tragedy in the city of Petrópolis, located about 70 kilometers from the city of Rio de Janeiro, is already considered by the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies as the largest climate catastrophe in Brazil.
On Tuesday afternoon it rained in three hours the amount that was forecast for the entire month of February. It was indicated that it is the largest volume of rainfall in 24 hours since 1956.
The enormous amount of rain caused landslides to be recorded in various parts of Petrópolis, especially in Alto de la Sierra, a residential area.
The Civil Defense mentioned that as a result of the landslides, 269 recorded so far, 372 people have been evacuated because they lost their homes, while 24 people have been rescued alive.
Governor Castro, however, stressed that “Unfortunately today there are people who are reluctant to leave their homes.”
The Mayor’s Office of Petrópolis decreed three days of mourning, in honor of the victims, and declared a state of public calamity, with the aim of speeding up rescue maneuvers and providing better care to all those affected.
Petrópolis has experienced similar situations in the past, the first in 1988, when the storms left a balance of 134 deaths, and then in 2011, when the deaths rose to almost 1,000 due to heavy rainfall.
