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Death toll from strong storm in Brazil's Petropolis rises to 146

Death toll from strong storm in Brazil’s Petropolis rises to 146

This content was published on February 20, 2022 – 00:02

(Update with new casualty scale)

Rio de Janeiro, February 19 (EFE). – The number of deaths caused by the powerful storm that has punished, since last Tuesday, the Brazilian city of Petropolis, this Saturday, rose to 146, while about 800 people are still being expelled from their homes.

More than 500 firefighters are working to locate dozens of missing people registered as a result of torrential rains that devastated part of the former Brazilian “imperial city”, located in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro (southeast).

Customers are forced to intermittently interrupt their work due to the fact that the rainy season does not subside, which increases the instability of the terrain, and thus makes rescue operations more difficult.

The Civil Defense warned the people, on Saturday, that the possibility of new landslides in the area is still “very high”, after more than 600 were reported in the past days.

Last Tuesday afternoon, Petropolis was devastated by the worst rainfall in nearly a century, causing dozens of landslides and floods in various parts of the city and powerful floods that destroyed everything in its path.

At least 146 people were killed and the police have a list of about 165 disappeared, although the attorney general’s office is dealing with a much smaller number.

So far, firefighters have rescued 24 people alive in this historic city of about 300,000 people and now it has turned into a real swamp.

On the other hand, the Rio Fire Department has requested, internally, the urgent purchase of more helmets, gloves, wells, shovels, buckets and light bulbs, so that it can cope with the large number of accidents, according to the portal “. owl”.

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Part of the population criticized the lack of troops in the most affected areas, although the governor of Rio, Claudio Castro, explained that the extreme instability of the terrain prevented the transfer of a large number of brigade members to those most sensitive places.

Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, flew over the areas of Petropolis hardest hit by the storm on Friday, saying he had seen “extreme devastation”.

“It’s a semi-war picture,” the president said. EFE

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