Brazil storm death toll rises to 165

The death toll from torrential rains that triggered flash floods and landslides in the scenic Brazilian city of Petropolis has risen to 165, authorities said Sunday, as more violent storms killed two people in another region nearby.

Rescue workers and residents searching for their missing relatives continued digging through mountains of mud and rubble in Petropolis, which President Jair Bolsonaro said Friday looked like it had been through a "war."

It is unclear how high the steadily rising death toll will go. It is unlikely any more survivors will be found beneath the wreckage, authorities say.

The dead include at least 28 children, police said.

Weather chaos continued to batter Brazil as more violent rains lashed the southeastern state of Espirito Santo Sunday.

The new storms killed at least two people, said emergency officials in Espirito Santo, which borders Rio de Janeiro state, where Petropolis is located.

One person was crushed by a collapsing wall and killed in the city of Alegre, and another swept away trying to retrieve a car from severe flooding in the city of Nova Venecia, officials said.

The storms forced more than 1,200 people to evacuate their homes and destroyed another 43 people's houses, they said.

They are the latest in a series of deadly storms to hit Brazil, which experts say are made worse by climate change.

In the past three months, at least 219 people have died in severe rainstorms, mainly in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo and the northeastern state of Bahia, as well as Petropolis and now Espirito Santo.

Pope Francis sent his latest message of condolences Sunday following his Angelus prayer at Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican.

"I express my closeness to those people hit in previous days by natural calamities," he said, mentioning "devastated" Petropolis as well as Madagascar, hit recently by deadly cyclones.

"Lord, welcome the dead in peace, comfort the family members and support those who offer aid," he said.

- 'Mega clean-up' -

The storm turned streets in Petropolis into violent rivers that swept away trees, cars and buses, and triggered deadly landslides in poor hillside neighborhoods that ring the city of 300,000 people.

It dumped a month's worth of rain in several hours on the picturesque tourist town, which was the 19th-century summer capital of the Brazilian empire.

The city held what it called a "mega clean-up operation" Sunday, aided by 370 sanitation workers sent in as reinforcements from the nearby cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niteroi.

The mayor's office urged residents to stay home except in case of "extreme necessity" to let clean-up crews clear the piles of muck and debris still clogging streets.

Authorities have so far recovered more than 300 cars that were "strewn around the city, blocking streets and sidewalks or stuck in rivers," they said.

"We need our streets clear so we can speed up the job of getting our city back on its feet," Mayor Rubens Bomtempo said in a statement.

There is no word on when those who lost their homes or had to evacuate will be able to return to the hardest-hit areas, if at all.

At least 856 people are being housed in emergency shelters, according to officials.

A steady stream of funerals for victims meanwhile continued at the city's main cemetery, where the local government brought in extra grave-diggers as reinforcements.

Volunteer logistics whizzes race to aid Brazil storm victims
Petropolis, Brazil (AFP) Feb 18, 2022 - Clothing donations have flooded into Brazil's disaster zone, but underwear is in short supply. Enter the volunteer logistics masterminds racing to find out what those left homeless by this week's deadly storms actually need -- and get it to them.

Tuesday's torrential rains and the deadly floods and landslides they triggered have turned the scenic mountain city of Petropolis into what numerous officials, including President Jair Bolsonaro, describe as a "war zone."

Teams of rescue workers are knee-deep in mud and rubble searching for landslide victims, anguished families sobbing for their lost loved ones are an all-too-common sight, and the mangled remains of cars washed away in flash floods are strewn around the city.

Residents like lawyer Daniel Vasconcellos have responded by setting up overnight charities resembling wartime supply operations.

When Vasconcellos and his law partner, Bernardo da Silva Oliveira, saw that authorities and established charities were not getting their neighbors the help they needed, they turned their offices into the headquarters of a massive aid effort.

Outside their offices in the hard-hit neighborhood of Chacara Flora, a long human chain passes packages of bottled water from hand to hand at rapid speed.

Inside, the floor is stacked high with clothing, food, hygiene products, diapers and myriad other necessities for people who lost everything.

"When the landslides hit, we and a lot of others rushed to help people trapped in the mud and rubble," says Vasconcellos, 28.

But once rescue workers and the army arrived at the scene, "we saw people needed another kind of help," he told AFP.

Donations started pouring in from all around Brazil as news of the tragedy spread. But he and Oliveira saw a gap between what people were getting and what they needed.

"The official donation centers are full, but sometimes they're not getting to the people up there in hillside neighborhoods who are waiting for a family member's body to be found," says Vasconcellos.

As natives of the neighborhood, they knew what was needed: motorcycles.

In the poor hillside communities around Petropolis -- the scenes of the deadliest landslides -- "there are a lot of places where cars can't go, only a motorcycle can get there," says Oliveira, 29.

"We go all the way to the top of the mountain."

- 'We go to them' -

They started with two motorcycles, using social media to spread the word and collect donations from family and friends.

The operation soon snowballed.

As it grew, they sought to do a better job matching donations to people's needs than groups using official channels.

At first, with their electricity and water cut off, residents' most urgent need was bottled water.

Now, they need to change clothes, their babies' diapers and brush their teeth.

"Sometimes people receive a donation and they end up throwing it away," says Vasconcellos.

"We go to them and say, 'What do you need?' If we don't have it, we go to the supermarket and get it."

The biggest needs right now? Baby bottles, milk and underwear, they say.

Father Moises Fragoso de Sousa is heading another massive logistics operation at the Santo Antonio church, which sits in front of Morro da Oficina, sight of the deadliest landslide.

The square outside the church is an anthill of activity, with about 100 volunteers racing to sort and deliver donations for the community and 200 newly homeless people sheltering inside.

"We started with a very improvised structure, but we're getting better organized by the day," says the 35-year-old priest.

"People's volunteer spirit has been incredible to see. It's the biggest labor force in this tragedy."

Related Links
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