Mudslides, flooding kill nearly 100 in Brazil's 'imperial city'
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Mudslides have killed at least 94 people in Brazil's historic mountain town of Petropolis, as per local officials. Heavy rains have triggered mudslides that buried homes, swept cars and buses off the roads and flooded the streets.Petropolis or the 'imperial city' is located above hills in Rio de Janeiro. It was the summer getaway of Brazil's monarchs in the 19th century. As rainfall on Tuesday exceeded the average for the entire month of February. Floods ravaged Petropoils' elegant streets and destroyed its Germanic building."I lost my niece and her five-year-old daughter, who we still haven't found," she said. "We did not expect this tragedy. Our city is over." In the Morro da Oficina neighborhood, up to 80 houses were hit by landslides, according to authorities who expect the death toll to rise. Fire department and local civil defense teams were working at the site."The situation is almost like war.Cars hanging from poles, cars overturned, lots of mud and water still," Rio de Janeiro Governor Claudio Castro told reporters onsite.A mourning of three days has been declared by Petropolis' city hall. Displaced people were being taken to schools and shelters. More than 300 people had to leave their homes. "We intend to already offer to the mayor what we can," Bolsonaro told reporters in Moscow, adding that he would release federal funds to help "restore traffic in the region."Since December, heavy rains have triggered deadly floods and landslides in northeast Brazil and Sao Paulo state, threatened to delay harvests in the nation's central western region and briefly forced the suspension of mining operations in the state of Minas Gerais.