At least 38 dead due to floods and heavy rains in southern Brazil

At leasts 38 people have died as a result of the floods that occurred after heavy rains fell on Tuesday in the mountainous municipality of Petrópolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, according to the latest update offered this Wednesday by the Fire Department.

The local authorities have decreed a state of public calamity after the water has devastated large areas of the municipality, with infrastructures and houses buried by the mud. Civil Defense has warned that the rains, although moderately, will continue to fall throughout this Wednesday.

With the sky a little clearer, the magnitude of the devastation caused by the rains has been observed, after the hills of this mountainous region located in the south of Brazil have collapsed, damaging vehicles and obstructing the main access roads.

The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who is on a diplomatic trip to Russia, has shown his support for the victims through Twitter, promising that despite being far away, he and his government remain “committed to helping others.” . “God comfort the families of the victims”He has written.

Civil Defense has activated all the alarms to mobilize the population. Residents of the risk areas are being directed to support points, which have been opened to provide help in their respective locations. The accumulated precipitation has reached 126 millimeters in just one hour.