Six dead in Rio de Janeiro for the storm | A …

The storm that hit Rio de Janeiro all night on Wednesday caused at least six deaths, said Mayor Marcelo Crivella yesterday, who decreed three days of mourning in the city declared "in a state of crisis". The official balance, which was five deaths in the morning, rose after firefighters confirmed the discovery of a second bus body dragged and partially buried by a landslide on Niemeyer Avenue, which runs along a good part of the Rio seafront and connects the wealthy districts of Leblon and Sao Conrado.

"We have several risk zones in our city, the soil is waterlogged, there could be landslides and (new) tree falls" if the rains continue, Crivella said. "I ask people not to stay in these places," he added.

The mayor's office recorded 170 trees felled, which often blocked traffic and caused power outages. Thursday afternoon, some 80,000 subscribers were without electricity, according to AFP, confirmed the company Light, which provides these services. The most critical situation has been concentrated in six neighborhoods, including the wealthy district of Barra da Tijuca, where Light has not been able to restore energy due to obstructions such as trees or floods.

Part of the bike path built for the 2016 Olympic Games and overlooking the sea has also been destroyed, without casualties. Most of the time, this road was already closed due to the break of a stretch of April 2016.

Twenty-four years ago, Elayne's car was stuck under a tree in the same place as the bus where two people were killed.

"They should be closing Niemeyer Avenue every time it's raining a lot.This should be done for a long time, but it's leaving … when someone dies, everyone is moved." It's like the case (of the mining disaster) in Brumadinho: everyone knows what's going to happen, but nobody does anything, "said the woman's 60-year-old AFP indignantly. .

Videos posted on social networks and reproduced on television showed floating chairs in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in Sao Conrado, completely flooded, and a huge leak of water in a private hospital in Barra da Tijuca, above what appeared to be a patient. intubated in an intensive care unit.

The Rio Operations Center (COR) has asked the Cariocas to "only move when in dire need", to warn the authorities in case of "signs of cracks" in homes and homes. be attentive to "sirens" which warned of the risk of landslides.

The southern zone, the most tourist area, where favelas located in the hills and luxury residential neighborhoods juxtaposed, was one of the most punished.

In Rocinha, the largest favela in the city (70,000 inhabitants, according to official data), 153.2 millimeters of water fell in four hours, more than half of the historical average in February. The emergency sirens alerted in time the risk of landslides and allowed the evacuation of many people, according to the Civil Defense.

Winds of up to 110 km / hour have been blowing in Copacabana, killing several trees on the busy Nossa Senhora Avenue in Copacabana, parallel to the beach, the CoR said.

Isaac Oliveira, a young surfer, recounted how, beside the stone of Arpoador, he had helped two sailors whose sailboat had been driven by the storm and had stranded in the sand.

"They were anchored, but the sea was so strong that the anchor was not holding the boat," said Oliveira.

Botafogo, Ipanema and Leblon also suffered from the fall of several trees, which led to power cuts in several regions.

The "state of crisis" decreed by the municipality is the third and most important warning about rainfall that can cause floods or landslides.

Rio had the hottest January since the beginning of the official archives in 1922, with an average temperature of 37.4 degrees Celsius.