Rain showers began Thursday, causing deadly landslides in the area. The amount of rain recorded in the last 48 hours was the highest since records began in Angra dos Reis, according to the city administration.
Officials told affiliate CNN Brazil on Saturday that a landslide in the city of Paraty killed at least eight people — a father and seven of his children — ranging in age from 2 to 17. A seventh child was rescued and taken to a hospital, community officials said.
At least four other people were injured – none seriously – after seven homes were hit by landslides in the coastal community of Ponta Negra, officials in Paraty said. More than 22 neighborhoods were flooded and 71 families were displaced.
In the municipality of Mesquita, a 38-year-old man was electrocuted after three days of heavy rain, CNN Brazil reported.
In the city of Angra dos Reis, a 4-year-old girl and a teenager were killed and at least nine people are missing, the subsidiary said, citing civil defense and fire officials. Five people were rescued.
Firefighters and civil protection agencies from the state of Rio de Janeiro are deployed in the affected cities to help rescue people. The civil defense has no estimate of how many people are missing so far.
Brazil’s Interior Ministry said Colonel Alexandre Lucas, the national secretary of civil defense and civil defense, is traveling to the hardest-hit areas on Saturday.
At least 24 people were killed and more than 1,500 displaced in early February after days of heavy rains hit São Paulo state, triggering floods and landslides.