The number of victims of torrential rains last week near Rio could exceed 1,000, according to latest official figures disclosed on Friday 21 January, the Civil Defense and the Ministry of Health, which confirmed 759 dead and 400 missing. The cities most affected are Nova Friburgo, with 365 victims, and Teresopolis, with 308.The death toll mounts as and when relief emit body in the sea of mud that engulfed the highlands, a hundred miles north of Rio. The country has seen earlier in the week of national mourning three days. The Brazilian government says that nearly 14,000 people are homeless in this agricultural region and resort, where peaks rising to 2200 meters.
Ten days after the disaster, one of the worst in Brazilian history, this tourist area was still far from a return to normal. Many residents were still in remote villages, where army helicopters refueling in the water and food. The health secretary, Solange Sirico, warned Sunday against "the risk of epidemics such as hepatitis and leptospirosis.
She also asked people "not to drink well water is contaminated" and it appealed for donations of medical supplies and volunteer doctors. Seasonal rains usually strong, have this time shot with extreme violence, spilling a few hours the equivalent of one full month of rainfall and triggering avalanches of mud, broken trees and rocks that have any swept their path.
Civil Defence Nova Friburgo said she began to identify thousands of people affected by the rains in order to pay them a first compensation. The federal government announced an immediate $ 60 million. The Swiss canton of Fribourg and the city have also pledged aid. Apart from exceptional rainfall, uncontrolled urbanization on the hillside, the foresight of the authorities, are stigmatized as being responsible for the high number of victims each year in the rainy season during the austral summer.
The new president, Dilma Rousseff, who took over on 1 January Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to implement a plan of prevention and preparedness before the World Cup in 2014. Some five million Brazilians live in about five hundred at-risk areas throughout the country.
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