The floods and landslides caused by strong rains in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo in recent days They have already left at least 28 dead, the authorities reported on Wednesday, who are looking for seven missing persons.
Until now, 24 fatalities had been reported since Fridayincluding eight children.
The Civil Defense of the local government, which coordinates relief efforts, confirmed that three bodies were found in the rubble of a landslide in Franco da Rocha, a municipality about forty kilometers from the metropolis of São Paulo.
and recorded another death in Francisco Morato, 25 km north.
Twelve people were injured, while seven remain missing as consequence of the landslide in Franco de Rochaaccording to the official count.
“Bad weather disruptions also left about 2,914 families homeless or displaced”added the Civil Defense.
Heavy rainfall has affected this state in southeastern Brazil since Friday, the most populous in the country with 46 million inhabitants, and the weather forecast indicates that the rains will continue in the region for the next few days.
President Jair Bolsonaro flew over on Tuesday with several ministers affected areas and met with local authorities.
“We regret the deaths. We know that many times people end up, out of necessity, building their houses in places where ten20 or 30 years later, these disasters happen over time,” the president said during the visit.
Most deadly landslides in Brazil occurs in precariously built housing areas and on the slopes of hills, such as those of Franco da Rocha.
The governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, earmarked 15 million reais (about 2.8 million dollars) for aidra the ten hardest hit localities in the state.
Since the start of the rainy season in October, Brazil has suffered heavy rainfall, especially in the states of Bahia (northeast), where 24 people died, and Minas Gerais (southeast), where there were at least 19 fatalities and thousands of displaced.
According to specialiststhese torrential rains are due, among other things, to the meteorological phenomenon La Niñaa cooling in the Pacific Ocean that causes more rain than usual in certain regions of the planet and terrible droughts in others.
And more generally, extreme events are increasing due to the climate crisisthey point out
