A powerful storm kills at least 12 people and paralyzes Sao Paulo | Internationale

It would be a little over six hours by bus between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, but it finally turned out to be a trip of more than nine hours, with an unusual 40-minute walk in the middle of Marginal Tieto. One of the main roads that gives access To go to town: it was the only way to get to the central bus station, because the traffic was only a few meters per hour. The chaos in the lives of pbadengers on one of the most common itineraries in Brazil is an example of what happened in São Paulo after the heavy rains that fell on Sunday night and which lasted very early, killing at least 12 people .

The severe storm that hit São Paulo and the metropolitan area, known as the Grand ABC (Santo André, São Bernardo and São Caetano do Sul), early Monday morning, left a trail of floods, at least 54 landslides of land and 155 fallen trees. Firefighters attended nearly 700 flood-related incidents.

According to Civil Protection, four of the dead were dragged by the waters and drowned on the border of the capital, São Caetano do Sul. A motorcyclist also drowned in São Bernardo do Campo. In Santo André, another person ended up drowned. The storm also claimed the life of a baby who was with his parents when his house in Embu das Artes was buried by the earth. The firefighters helped him in the rubble and he was transferred alive to the Geral Hospital of Itapecerica da Serra, where he died shortly thereafter. Relatives of the child have suffered minor injuries and are in good condition.

The Marginal Tietê, one of the central streets of the megalopolis, woke up paralyzed and many pbadengers had to walk long to get to their destination. In a hurry, they tried to get in touch with their loved ones, their colleagues and their leaders to explain the reason for the delay. Others took pictures of the bottleneck to possibly use them as evidence. "How is it possible that São Paulo, Brazil's largest and richest city, can not stand a rain without causing trouble?", Asked many people.

Mayor Bruno Covas (Brazilian Social Democrat Party, PSDB) was absent from the town hall for a week for personal reasons – he did not specify which – and handed the witness to the president of the municipal chamber, Eduardo Tuma, of his own party. At a press conference, the acting mayor described the chaos caused by the storm as "unpredictable" and "extraordinary". "No preventive action could fix what happened today," he said. For its part, the governor of São Paulo, João Doria, flew over the flooded areas and created a crisis cabinet to closely monitor the damage to the capital and the metropolitan area. "I offer my full solidarity to the families affected by the heavy rains, and our main concern now is to protect lives," said the PSDB politician. Bruno Covas said on his Twitter profile that he would return to the city on Monday. "Until today, it has rained more than the expected 90% for more than March," said the mayor.