by Staff Writers
Brasilia (AFP) Dec 26, 2013
Brazil leader breaks holidays to tour flood-hit areas
Bras�lia (AFP) Dec 27, 2013 – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff interrupted her year-end holidays Friday to tour flood-hit areas of the country’s southeast where 40 people have died following torrential rains.
After two weeks of heavy downpours which have triggered deadly landslides, the weather is beginning to improve across much of southeastern Brazil.
Tens of thousands of people spent Christmas without drinking water, power or communications while food shortages were reported.
Accompanied by Health Minister Alexandre Padilha, Rousseff flew over the Governador Valadares region of Minas Gerais where torrential rains have left people dead and forced 9,500 to leave their homes.
Civil Defense officials said two children aged 3 and 11 died Sunday buried under mud slides that swept away their home in Governador Valadares, where rivers overflowed their banks, causing extensive flooding.
In neighboring Espirito Santo which has been hit by the worst rains in 90 years and which Rousseff toured on Tuesday, the official death toll was revised downward from 27 to 23.
Two persons are still reported missing and presumed to be buried under the mud.
A total of 52 cities in Espirito Santo have been hit by flooding and 61,000 people have been evacuated.
The Brazilian Air Force said its helicopters rescued 162 elderly and sick people as well as women and children. It also delivered eight tons of food, medicines and drinking water to the state.
The federal government meanwhile authorized the allocation of nearly $3 million to fund rescue operations, assistance to the victims and restoration of essential services in Espirito Santo.
At least 44 people have died and more than 60,000 have been left homeless following torrential rain in southeast Brazil over the past few weeks, officials said Thursday.
In Espirito Santo state, Civil Defense officials reported a total of 27 fatalities, including eight Thursday, in what they described as the worst rains in 90 years.
They said 61,379 people were forced to leave their homes.
“We are going to have to rebuild the state,” said Governor Renato Casagrande amid extensive flooding and damage to bridges and roads.
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BBC
Floods kill dozens in south-east Brazil
Many rivers have burst their banks, such as the Doce in Espirito Santo state
More than 40 people have died following weeks of torrential rain in the south-eastern Brazilian states of Espirito Santo and Minas Gerais.
The downpours have been described as the worst to hit Espirito Santo in 90 years.
About 70,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.
Troops have been deployed to help distribute food, water and medicine to areas cut off by flooding and landslides and to repair roads.
‘Rebuild the state’
“We are going to have to rebuild the state,” Espirito Santo State Governor Renato Casagrande said referring to the extensive damage caused to bridges and roads.
President Dilma Rousseff interrupted her Christmas break to fly to her home state of Minas Gerais to survey the damage.
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