Rio de Janeiro: the storm is already seven dead and forecasts indicate that it will continue to rain

Some victims have died drowned, electrocuted or avalanche trails.

In a state of emergency in Rio de Janeiro, it keeps raining. The storm that punishes the city since Monday leaves for the moment a record of seven deaths, floods, landslides, houses devastated by mud, cars dragged by water and fallen trees. At 800 points, there is no light.

The authorities had to cancel clbades and urged the population to avoid non-essential traffic. They ask people to stay at home except in extraordinary cases.

The torrents descended the streets on Tuesday, dragging cars and shooting down trees during the rainy season that began at rush hour on Monday afternoon. Mayor Marcelo Crivella said the city was facing a "crisis".

According to municipal officials, 152 mm of rain fell in four hours on Monday night, exceeding the average for the month of April. The botanical gardens district, a tourist destination, was one of the most affected, with 231 millimeters of rain per 24 hours.

Mermaids rang in 20 flood risk areas to allow people to reach safe places. But some neighbors reported that when there was no light, the alarms did not ring.

The victims

For example, Crivella himself stated that they had not stopped in the favela of Babylon, located on a hill behind the famous Sugarloaf. Firefighters said two women died in a mudslide and neighbors complained of the lack of notice. And that these deaths could have been avoided.

Authorities reported that a third person had drowned.

The fourth victim was a 40-year-old man who had been electrocuted by cleaning the drain of his house.

A fifth body was found by the rescue authorities in Botafogo, another affected area south of Rio.

A grandmother and her granddaughter, who left a shopping center Monday night to go home, were also reported missing by the authorities.

The favelas, located in the hills, are particularly exposed to avalanches. The authorities have indicated that more than 100 communities have been clbadified as "high geological risk".

Such is the case of Babylon, where the collapse has devastated several homes, endangered other homes and left fallen trees and difficult access to the area through the quagmire.

Boys caught in a school bus

On Monday night, images from various local media showed how firefighters were rescuing several children trapped on a school bus in the middle of the water.

Hundreds of people were forced to stay in the calm of the rains to return home because the roads were completely paralyzed by floods.

At a press conference during which he took stock of the situation, the mayor pointed out the lack of budget of the Nation to help the city funds to attend emergencies like the one who lives in Rio and acknowledged the need for cleaning the premises. more consistent sewers to avoid this kind of tragedy.

"We have thousands of families living in high-risk areas, we have 750,000 sewers to clean up all the time, and the resources for that are small, we depend on partnerships with the federal government," said the Mayor.

At least 800 points in the city were Tuesday without electricity.

The southern area, where are the tourist areas of Ipanema and Copacabana, is one of the most affected, with Barra de Tijuca, Japarepaguá and other neighborhoods located to the west of the city.

On Tuesday morning, the floods forced rescuers to "swim" literally through the floods to confirm the presence of victims or animals trapped by debris.

The "wonderful city", where some 2,000 people have been affected by emergencies, is in crisis, the most serious of its magnitude.

Source: AP and EFE