Landslides Due to Heavy Rains Kill Almost 100 People in Brazilian Mountain City of Petropolis

Heavy rains triggered landslides in Petropolis on Thursday, where almost 100 people were found dead. According to local officials, the landslides wreaked havoc streets and homes of the Brazilian mountain city.

According to Civil Defense of Rio, another 134 people were missing and another neighborhood in the city was forced to evacuate. The defense administration told CNN that the Tuesday afternoon rainfall alone "was more than the historical average for the whole of February."

Brazil's Civil Defense Secretariat told CNN Brasil on Tuesday that 269 landslides had been recorded so far after hillside neighborhoods had been flooded, leaving destruction at its wake.

As torrential rains subside, search and rescue for survivors continue.

Buried dead or alive

(Photo : Photo credit: MAURICIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images)
Residents talk in a destroyed street in downtown Nova Friburgo, some 150 km north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 15, 2010. Brazilians emerged Saturday to face the chaos and destruction left by three days of torrential rains, rivers of mud and landslides that have killed 555 people in the country's worst flood disaster on record.

More than 500 rescuers wade through mud and wreckage on Wednesday to search for survivors. So far, the National Civil Defense reported 24 people had been saved alive, while rescue efforts are ongoing. More than 439 people lost their homes.

"The work continues and we will do the possible and the impossible to save lives," said Rio de Janeiro state Governor, Claudio Castro on Wednesday in a Twitter post.

As extensive damage and vehicles float in the streets, salesman Luis Felipe de Oliveira searched for his missing brother and grandmother. "They are buried, but we don't know if they are dead or alive," he told CNN. "I tell myself that I will find them alive, but I am prepared for the worst."

Governor Castro told journalists that the situation is "almost like war", as cars either hang from poles, or overturned, with lots of mud and water. Residents have been holding up hope that their missing loved ones are still alive while they wait patiently.

According to Reuters, there is conflicting information regarding the number of victims of the tragedy. The police said more than 100 people are missing while the prosecutor's office said at least 35 people are missing.

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Extreme rain events expected to increase as the Earth warms

Northeastern Brazil had been battling heavy rains since December, triggering deadly floods and landslides across much of Brazil, affecting harvests and briefly forcing the suspension of mining operations in the state of Minas Gerais, just north of Rio.

The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change reports that the southern part of Brazil has been experiencing an increase in average rainfall, as well as extreme rain events since the 1960s due to global greenhouse emissions and depleted ozone layer.

The Tuesday downpours alone exceeded the average for the entire month of February, and was the heaviest rainfall registered since 1932 in Petropolis.

"I don't even have words. I'm devastated. We are all devastated for what we have lost, for our neighbors, for our friends, our homes. And we are still alive, what about those who are gone?" said resident Luci Vieira dos Santos.

"I've been living here for 44 years and never saw anything like that... All my friends are gone, they are all dead, all buried," another resident Maria Jose Dante de Araujo mourned.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has promised to visit the region when he returns from an official trip to Russia and Hungary, and has pledged federal assistance to help the population rebuild the lost homes.

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