Brazil: Floods and landslides kill eight, 13 missing

Torrential rains have triggered flash floods and landslides across
Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state, killing at least eight people including six
children and leaving 13 missing, authorities said on Saturday.

Two days of heavy rain have battered a broad swath of the southeastern state’s
Atlantic coast, the latest in a series of deadly storms in Brazil that experts
have said are being aggravated by climate change.

The latest floods and landslides come six weeks after flash floods and
landslides killed 233 people in the scenic city of Petropolis, the Brazilian
empire’s 19th-century summer capital, also in Rio state.

This time, the areas hit hardest included the tourist town of Paraty, a
seaside colonial city known for its picturesque cobblestone streets and
colourful houses.

Officials on Saturday there said a landslide in the Ponta Negra neighbourhood
had killed a mother and five of her children, ages two, five, eight, 10 and
15.

A sixth child was rescued alive and taken to the hospital, they said.

In all, seven houses were swept away in landslides in the city, and another
four people injured. Seventy-one families were forced from their homes,
officials said.

Two more victims were killed in the cities of Mesquita and Angra dos Reis,
where another 13 people remain missing, said Congressman Marcelo Freixo, who
represents the state of 17.5 million people.

In Angra, the victim was a four-year-old girl buried in a landslide, while in
Mesquita, 40km (25 miles) northwest of Rio de Janeiro city, a 38-year-old man
was electrocuted trying to help another person escape the flooding, media
reports said.

The storms turned streets into rivers in several cities on Friday night,
sweeping up cars and triggering landslides – a frequent tragedy in the rainy
season, especially in poor hillside communities.

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