At least 122 bodies have been found under the rubble in the city of Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro) after the heavy rains that hit that Brazilian city this week, while at least 218 people are registered as missing, according to information released by the Police. Civil.
In addition to the 122 fatalities and two remains extracted from the rubble, it is estimated that the number of deaths will continue to rise while the search for survivors continues, in which more than 500 members of the Fire Department and officials from the Mayor’s Office and others participate. municipalities throughout the first district.
Most of the employees of the Whereabouts Location Police Station (DDPA) have organized themselves into four groups and visit hospitals and shelters to help identify the disappeared.
So far, 24 people have been found alive, some with serious injuries, who were admitted to care centers in a very serious condition, according to information provided by hospital doctors to local media.
According to a press release, the Petrópolis City Council announced the increase in the number of employees who will help with exhumations and burials, as well as the excavation of new graves in the Central Cemetery.
On Thursday night the rains returned with force and the rescue work had to be suspended. Given the fact, the residents of several neighborhoods were alerted with alarms to take refuge in the homes of relatives or public shelters.
The authorities activated the warning sirens again this Friday in the presence of heavy rainfall that threatens new landslides.
This Thursday, ten employees of the Petrópolis Municipal Development Company (Comdep) worked to open the largest number of shallow graves in record time, since 31 burials had to be carried out in the Centro Cemetery, the city’s main cemetery.
This facility only has the capacity for ten burials a day and was already overloaded and in a precarious situation by the victims of Covid-19 in the last two years.
The two funeral homes attached to the cemetery had to attend this Thursday, between them, 46 burials. According to testimonies from an employee to a local media, it is not possible to search for all the bodies because there are no pits or coffins available to bury them.
For his part, President Jaoir Bolsonaro returned from his visit to Russia and Hungary and flew over the devastated area of the city. He said that the catastrophe is really great, although he omitted that last year he ordered to suppress funds destined for natural disaster prevention programs.
Pope Francis expressed his condolences and shared the pain of “those in mourning or stripped of their property”, in a telegram in Portuguese sent to the Bishop of Petrópolis, Gregorio Paixao Neto.
