Meteorologists are saying the rains that inundated northeastern Brazil on Sunday were the heaviest seen in two decades. The torrential rains caused scores of mudslides, two of the mudslides turning deadly.
The two deadly mudslides Monday night destroyed several dozen homes built on the hillsides on the outskirts of the city. Area residents in this poorer section of Salvador rushed to help their neighbors, many of them trapped in the wreckage of their homes.
At least 10 people were injured and at last count, 14 are dead. Firefighters are still scouring the wreckage looking for those who are unaccounted for, hoping against hope to find more survivors.
“We want the authorities, firefighters, the police here to help us,” one resident said. Local authorities say the death toll is expected to rise. It was reported that a 12-year-old and a 16-year-old were among those who were killed.
Many homes near the areas of the mudslides remain at risk of toppling. The city got 7.8 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. More rain is expected to fall over the next day or two. The rainfall figure is about 65 percent of the total rainfall for the month of April.
Seven people died in the Barro Branco neighborhood and another seven in Marotinho. Patients in the San Antonio Hospital had to be evacuated because of flood waters reaching inside. Barro Branco was hit by a mudslide in 1996, when 13 people died and 300 people were left homeless.
