Brazilian Storms Kill 29; 7,000 Are Left Homeless
RIO DE JANEIRO — Weeklong torrential rains that flooded avenues in Copacabana Beach and caused mud slides in several Brazilian states have killed 29 people and left 7,000 homeless, civil defense officials said Tuesday.
The hardest-hit areas were the southeastern Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, but the Amazon region also was affected by heavy rain that filled rivers to overflowing.
“As a consequence of the rains that have fallen since Dec. 23, 16 people have died in Minas Gerais state and 10 in Sao Paulo,” civil defense spokeswoman Maria Helena Costa said.
Three others died in the city of Rio de Janeiro, including a man electrocuted when he tried to help a neighbor sweep water out of her kitchen and accidentally touched a plugged-in refrigerator, police said.
Costa said that about 7,000 people were left homeless from the rain and flooding.
The rainfall has created havoc in Rio, where hundreds of rickety hillside shantytown shacks are threatened by mud slides and loose boulders. Many of the city’s road tunnels through the mountains were shut down because cars stalled in waist-deep water.
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