The municipality of Rio continues in a state of alert because of the rains from the end of the afternoon until the night of this Friday (1st). According to the Alerta Rio system, rain cores remained stationary on the coast and regions close to the Pedra Branca and Tijuca Massifs, causing moderate to very heavy rain in these regions.
The alert stage is the fourth level, on a scale of five, and means that one or more serious events impact the city or there is a simultaneous incidence of several medium and high impact problems in different regions.
According to the Operations Center of the City of Rio de Janeiro (COR-Rio), 57 warning sirens were activated in 31 hills and communities in the last 24 hours. When this occurs, residents must leave their homes and gather at safe support points, previously known, along established escape routes.
At around 9 pm, according to COR-Rio, there were still 26 pockets of water in the streets; seven floods and five tree falls in the city. Among the hardest hit were Rua Jardim Botânico, the Lagoa-Barra Highway, Avenida Maracanã and Praça da Bandeira. The latter received the work of a large underground swimming pool, still for the 2016 Olympic Games, but it was not enough to drain the water.
One of the reasons that aggravated the situation in the city was the strike by the municipal cleaning company (Comlurb), which generated tons of garbage not collected in the streets, clogging the drains and causing difficulty in the drainage of water. The street sweepers interrupted the strike precisely because of the rains, but promised to resume the strike next Monday (4).
The entire metropolitan region of Rio continues with a high possibility of slopes slipping because of the accumulated rain. Because of this, the city council recommends the population to postpone appointments, stay in a safe place, only move if you are in a risk area and, in case of a siren, look for a support point.
On the south BR-101, Rodovia Rio-Santos, there are four points of total interdiction due to flooding and landslides, according to the Federal Highway Police (PRF): km 596, km 592, km 456 and km 453. PRF advises drivers not to travel in the region.
Earlier, at km 578 of Rio-Santos, in the morning, there was a landslide on the PRF post, which was destroyed, but without the occurrence of casualties.
