No fewer than 36 lives have been lost on Carnival weekend in southeast Sao Paulo State, authorities have confirmed on Monday after flooding and landslides were triggered by torrential rain in Brazil.
TV and social media footage from the town of Sao Sebastiao which was obtained by Africa Today News, New York showed entire neighborhoods underwater, debris from hillside houses swept away by oozing earth, flooded highways, and cars destroyed by fallen trees, among other damage.
About 35 people died in Sao Sebastiao, the state government said. A girl was also killed in the town of Ubatuba, news reports said.
‘Unfortunately, we are going to have many more deaths,’ the state civil defense chief, Henguel Pereira, told the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
Africa Today News, New York reports that another 228 people were left homeless and 338 were evacuated in the coastal region north of the city of Sao Paulo, the state government said earlier, as rescue crews raced to help those hit by the storm.
The number of people who were either missing or hurt was not disclosed by the police.
Tarcisio de Freitas, governor of Sao Paulo state, flew over weather-devastated districts and proclaimed an emergency in five coastal municipalities. He made the equivalent of $1.5 million available for rescue efforts.
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President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Twitter that he will visit the area on Monday. He has been on holiday since Friday in the northeast state of Bahia.
Sao Sebastiao, 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Sao Paulo and where many people from the city spend the pre-Lenten holiday weekend on the beach, was hard hit, as a record 60 centimeters (nearly two feet) of rain fell in 24 hours, city officials said.
That is more than twice the amount that normally falls in a month.
Carnival events in Sao Sebastiao and elsewhere were cancelled.
‘We have not yet gauged the scale of the damage. We are trying to rescue the victims,’ said Sao Sebastiao Mayor Felipe Augusto, calling the situation in the town ‘extremely critical.’
‘We are working at nearly 50 residences that collapsed under the force of the water and there are still people buried,’ he told Globonews.
More than 100 firefighters were working at the scene, with the aid of helicopters.
Soldiers were also taking part in the race to help people affected by the downpour.
Lula said government at all levels would work to ‘take care of the injured, look for missing people, and restore roads, energy, and telecommunications.’
Amid the loss and destruction, authorities said a boy aged two was rescued from a sea of mud, as was a woman who was giving birth.