RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 19 (Reuters) - At least 207 people still missing and 727 people have died after the worst floods that have hit the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro in decades, as confirmed on Wednesday the country's authorities . The list of missing persons issued by the state attorney's office in Rio de Janeiro - the first official estimate of the number of missing from the disaster of last week - suggests that the overall death toll could approach 1,000.Teresópolis local officials and Nova Friburgo, the most affected cities, estimated that at least 300 people remain missing. It is assumed that many of them would be buried by avalanches of mud and water that destroyed hundreds of homes. "Some families were so concerned that there was no one to confirm who is gone," said Roberto Botto, spokesman for the Civil Defense Agency in Nova Friburgo, killing at least 345 people.
The death toll has been increasing every day as rescue teams have arrived in isolated areas and recovering more bodies from the rubble of neighborhoods that were virtually wiped out by landslides and floods. Army helicopters have moved into remote areas to collect survivors and help them recover bodies from their homes in ruins.
It is believed that hundreds of people still are in areas prone to further landslides. Some of them are cut off by destroyed roads and bridges, while others refuse to leave their homes for fear of being assaulted. Authorities said floods and landslides struck with such force that the geography of the region has undergone a profound change.
"The streams have become deep and wide rivers. There is great geographical shift is as if the city had been completely re-founded," said Icarus Moreno, president of EMOP, a civil engineering company of the Government. "People in these mountainous areas is not as safe as I thought," he added.
The federal government pledged this week to establish a national early warning system to warn communities about natural hazards and imminent.
No comments:
Post a Comment