correction
An earlier version of this article stated incorrectly that Petrópolis is some 70 miles from Rio de Janeiro. They are 44 miles apart. The article has been corrected.
“It’s almost a warlike situation,” Rio de Janeiro Gov. Cláudio Castro said at a news briefing. “All of our teams are mobilized: firefighters, departments and all other state agencies.” Some 500 firefighters have been deployed.
Castro said it was “the greatest rain since 1932,” characterizing the catastrophe as so rare that it was difficult to take preventive measures. Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology said that a record 10.2 inches of rain fell in Petrópolis in 24 hours, surpassing the city’s previous record of 6.6 inches in 1952.
Emergency responders have rescued at least 24 people, officials said, and at least 400 have been left homeless. Authorities have called in heavy machinery to help dig through the rubble.
In addition to those confirmed dead, at least 116 people have been reported missing. Castro said Thursday it was too early to know the real number. “We haven’t even started to speak with neighbors and to know if this or that person had somewhere to go,” he told reporters. “So there is a lot of anxiety to know about the missing people, but it’s a technical matter that needs to be respected.”
“We aren’t even 48 hours out of the tragedy,” he said. “It’s very early. All teams have worked through two consecutive nights.”
Rescue workers evacuated another community in Petrópolis on Thursday after a fresh landslide threatened the area, Brazilian media reported. There were no confirmed casualties.
Civil defense authorities warned of more heavy rain Thursday, urging people in at-risk areas to move to safer sites.
For Brazil, which battles flooding and landslides every year during rainy season, the scenes from Petrópolis were painfully familiar, recalling a 2011 disaster that killed more than 900 in the same area. More recently, landslides in two states — Minas Gerais and São Paulo — led to more than 40 deaths in January, and they came just weeks after flooding in Bahia state left at least 21 dead and thousands displaced.
The country’s heavily populated southeast has proved especially vulnerable, and experts say climate change is exacerbating this deadly extreme weather.
Petrópolis, 44 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro city, was founded in the 1840s by Brazilian Emperor Pedro II, who sought respite there from the scorching summer heat, and the region has remained a more temperate refuge. Petrópolis was one of the country’s first planned cities, but the population has since grown vertically, building precarious homes atop mountains that are especially at risk during downpours.
Images from this week’s rain and its aftermath showed torrents of water whipping through the city’s steep streets. It flooded public squares, inundating shops and homes. The mud overturned cars and swept aside structures.
Petrópolis Mayor Rubens Bomtempo said his city is “going through an extremely grave situation.”
“It was a difficult day, very complicated, even to understand the alterations happening in the territory,” Bomtempo said at a briefing. “Up to now, we don’t have a definitive dimension” of the damage done.
President Jair Bolsonaro, on a state visit to Russia, said he has spoken to local leaders and is “committed to helping others.”
“God comfort the families of the victims,” Bolsonaro said on Twitter.
First responders have set up a field hospital and a shelter, and a convoy of government trucks has been delivering aid supplies, including food, clothing and medicine, said Angela Góes, a spokesperson for the state civil defense ministry. More than 180 people living in high-risk areas, which authorities fear could be vulnerable in another storm, have been moved to local schools, she said.
The search-and-rescue effort — which included hundreds of firefighters, military police and nine helicopters — also drew residents, who combed the piles looking for loved ones and neighbors.
Rosilene Virgilio, 49, told the Associated Press she heard someone pleading for help, screaming, “Get me out of here!”
“But we couldn’t do anything; the water was gushing out, the mud was gushing out,” Virgilio said. “Our city unfortunately is finished.”
Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga flew over the affected areas Thursday and pledged to provide the population with assistance. Luiz Fux, president of Brazil’s supreme court, also announced that the country’s judicial council would collect donations for the victims, local media reported.
“Hundreds of families have lost their homes and their possessions. It will not be easy to rebuild the city,” Fux said.
Terrence McCoy contributed to this report.
