Heavy Rainstorm in Rio Kills Six People, Floods Streets And Puts City On Alert

[Judi Lynn]

Winds reached 68 miles per hour and the storm caused at least three landslides

Feb.8.2019 1:08PM

Lucas Vettorazzo
Ana Luiza Albuquerque
RIO DE JANEIRO



Flooded cars in São Conrado neighborhood, Rio - Twitter/Vanessa Silva

​A rainstorm with strong winds struck Rio on Wednesday night (6th), killing at least six people. It also caused flooding and left whole neighborhoods with no electricity and triggered sirens in landslide-prone areas. Around 10 pm, the city administration decreed the state of alert and asked residents not to leave their houses.

Among the six confirmed deaths so far, one occurred in Vidigal, another in Rocinha, two in Barra de Guaratiba and two on Niemeyer Avenue in the south, where a bus was partially buried by a landslide. Firefighters worked this morning to remove the hardware from the bus under a pile of mud.

Governor Wilson Witzel (PSC) blamed the disorderly occupation of slopes and hills for casualties and property damage brought by the storm.

Witzel was indirectly criticizing the current and former Rio mayors. According to him, the real estate expansion to the city's slopes and favelas was left unchecked, which made for many people living in high-risk areas. The governor showed a government survey stating that 80,000 families are living in disaster-prone areas around the whole state.

More:
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2019/02/heavy-rainstorm-in-rio-kills-six-people-floods-streets-and-puts-city-on-alert.shtml

[akraven]

1. Hoping for the best for everyone there.

I've been in major hurricanes, a couple of attendant tornados, and a flood. So I got the heck out. I know most can't.