The government of the State of Pernambouc, in northeast Brazil, also reports fourteen disappeared, and more than 6,000 people from the region of its capital, Recife, lost their accommodation. Research continued on Tuesday.
Le Monde with AFP
The torrential rains that caused floods and landslides around Recife, in northeast Brazil, left at least 100 dead, according to a latest assessment provided Tuesday, May 31 by local authorities. The government of the State of Pernambouc, of which Recife is the capital, also reports fourteen disappeared, while research continues in the most affected areas.
More than 400 firefighters are mobilized, especially in Jardim Monteverde, at the limit between Recife and the city of Jaboatao Dos Guararapes, where several dozen people were buried by a mud flow. More than 6,000 people in the Recife region lost their accommodation and had to be accommodated in reception structures, according to the last assessment of the authorities.
The state of emergency was decreed in twenty-four municipalities of Pernambouc. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro flew over the flooded areas on Monday and the government has released a billion reais credit (around 198 million euros) to help the victims.
Night, 70 % of monthly precipitation
The Head of State was criticized for having declared that this type of disaster was “things that happen”, after in particular a similar tragedy which left 233 dead in Petropolis, near Rio de Janeiro (South-East ), in February. Other deadly floods had taken place at the end of last year in the State of Bahia (northeast), then in January in the Southeast, in the states of Sao Paulo and the Minas Gerais.
Between Friday evening and Saturday morning, it rained the equivalent of 70 % of what is normally expected for the whole month of May in certain areas of Pernambouc. The specialist in natural disasters, José Marengo, told the Agency France-Presse (AFP) that this exceptional precipitation was due to global warming, but were above all deadly because of wild urbanization.
“The rain in itself does not kill. What is fatal is the rain on dwellings located in areas at risk,” explains this research coordinator of the National Center for Surveillance and Alert of Natural Disasters from Brazil (Cemaden). According to him, the authorities are “guilty” to have “allowed constructions in areas at risk, where poor populations live which have nowhere to go”.