June 22, 2010
MSNBC and news service reports
Almost 40 people have been killed and hundreds are missing after days of rain caused rivers to swell, and sparked mudslides and floods in northeastern Brazil, according to reports.
Photo: The Jacuipe River overflowed in Jacuipe on Sunday. "We are praying for the missing to be found alive," the state's governor said. (Thiago Sampaio / AFP - Getty)
The torrential rain, mudslides and floods in the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco, about 1,200 miles from Rio de Janeiro, completely destroyed some towns and villages. Some compared the scale of the devastation to the damage wreaked by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, O Globo newspaper reported on its website.
About 73,000 people have had to flee their homes, the country's Civil Defense said, according to O Globo.
Torrents of water washed away more than 40,000 houses in 22 towns across Alagoas alone, Al Jazeera quoted local officials as saying. Bridges, streets and rail lines were also damaged.
Entire families disappeared during the rains and authorities were having difficulty recovering bodies, O Globo reported.
Meanwhile, many areas in the affected region were still without water or power on Tuesday, the newspaper reported.
Crisis meeting
The country's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, called a crisis meeting for Tuesday after more than 14 inches of rain fell in some regions over three days, according to Al Jazeera.
Officials in hard-hit Alagoas reportedly said at least 500 people vanished after the Mundau River burst its banks in the town of Uniao dos Palmares.
"We are praying for the missing to be found alive. But we are very worried because bodies are starting to turn up on beaches and on riverbanks," state governor Teotonio Vilela Filho told Al Jazeera.
The number of known deaths could rise because many areas have been cut off due to cuts in power and phone service, according to The Associated Press.
In May 2009, flooding in the same region killed at least 44 people and displaced 380,000, the AP reported.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37840860/ns/world_news-americas/