View of the city of São Leopoldo in southern Brazil after the cyclone passed through. DIEGO VARA (Portal)
At least 13 people died and four are still missing when an extratropical cyclone swept through the Brazilian state of Rio Grandedo in the south of the country. The last two people who died were found this Sunday in the municipality of Caraá, where the rescue teams are continuing their search for the residents who have been reported missing by the Civil Protection. The powerful storm the cyclone unleashed forced the evacuation of thousands of people in around 40 communities, including in the state of Rio Grande do Sul on the border with Uruguay and Argentina, where damage from torrential rains was also reported.
The cyclone’s passage left a trail of destruction in the coastal region, causing landslides, flooding, power outages in thousands of homes, and severe damage to infrastructure and communications. The Brazilian army has mobilized to support rescue efforts in some of the hardest-hit cities. The fatalities also include a four-month-old baby who suffocated in the municipality of São Sebastião do Caí and could not be treated by the emergency services because the place where it was found was incommunicado. In São Leopoldo, too, some parts of the city were isolated by the floods.
The cyclone quickly triggered heavy rainfall and was accompanied by wind speeds of over 80 kilometers per hour. The number of people who disappeared reached twenty on Saturday afternoon but has been falling in recent hours after Brazilian authorities located several people alive, according to the latest official report.
“Our primary goal right now is to protect and save lives. Rescue the isolated people, locate the disappeared and give your full support to the families,” Rio Grande do Sul State Governor Eduardo Leite said in statements to journalists. Leite flew over the most affected areas this Saturday, accompanied by Ministers Paulo Pimenta of the Presidency’s Secretariat for Social Communications and Antônio Waldez Góes of the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development. The two ministers underscored Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s commitment to “provide full support” and “quickly respond” to communities affected by the cyclone. Last February, floods and landslides caused by torrential rains north of São Paulo killed 37 people.
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