{"id":497618,"date":"2026-02-25T02:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497618\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T02:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:32:07","slug":"floods-and-landslides-in-brazil-kill-at-least-30-after-record-rainfall-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497618\/","title":{"rendered":"Floods and landslides in Brazil kill at least 30 after record rainfall | Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three firefighters pulled a man\u2019s body from the mud amid the rubble of houses swept away in a landslide in south-eastern Brazil<\/a>, where 30 people died and 39 were still missing on Tuesday after torrential rains.<\/p>\n

A river in the state of Minas Gerais burst its banks and streets became raging currents of brown water after an overnight downpour in a region that has seen record rain this month.<\/p>\n

State firefighters said 30 people had died in the cities of Juiz de Fora and Ub\u00e1. More than 200 people have been rescued.<\/p>\n

Firefighters and search dogs worked to find 39 people still missing in the debris.<\/p>\n

Twelve houses in a hillside neighbourhood of Juiz de Fora had been swept away in a \u201cmassive landslide\u201d, Maj Demetrius Goulart of the fire brigade told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people were inside their homes at night when it was raining,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wilton Aparecido de Souza sobbed as he spoke of his 20-year-old son trapped in the debris.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a good boy, he had just finished his military service and he wanted to buy a motorcycle,\u201d the 42-year-old told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least find his body, so I can give him a proper burial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silence hung heavy over dozens of onlookers in the rare moments the excavators\u2019 engines stopped, broken only by the barking of a panicked dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost everyone buried in this mud is family; there\u2019s my sister, my niece,\u201d said Cleiton Ronan, a 32-year-old warehouse worker.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Goulart said a boy aged about 10 had been pulled alive from the rubble after a two-hour rescue effort. Many expressed hope that their loved ones would still be found alive.<\/p>\n

But, said Paulo Roberto Bermudes Rezende, a state civil defence coordinator, \u201cthe longer it goes on, the slimmer the chances of finding survivors become\u201d.<\/p>\n

Volunteers with shovels came to help the firefighters.<\/p>\n

Atila Mauro, a 33-year-old bricklayer, said: \u201cWhen I dug up children\u2019s belongings \u2013 balloons, teddy bears \u2013 it broke my heart. I\u2019m a father too \u2026 I\u2019m trying to help however I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state fire brigade said the rainfall had led to flooding and landslides, while images shared on social media showed buildings collapsing.<\/p>\n

Juiz de Fora\u2019s mayor, Margarida Salom\u00e3o, has declared a state of emergency.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, wrote on X: \u201cOur focus is to guarantee humanitarian assistance, the restoration of basic services, aid to displaced people, and support for reconstruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salom\u00e3o said her municipality of little more than 500,000 people was experiencing its wettest February on record, with 584mm (23in) of accumulated rainfall.<\/p>\n

Some neighbourhoods were isolated, with at least 20 landslides, Salom\u00e3o said, adding that the situation was \u201cextreme\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her office said that an estimated 440 people had had to leave their homes and were receiving support for temporary shelter.<\/p>\n

State authorities suspended classes in all municipal schools.<\/p>\n

Brazil has suffered various tragedies in recent years due to extreme weather events ranging from floods to drought and intense heatwaves.<\/p>\n

In 2024, more than 200 people died and two million were affected by unprecedented flooding in southern Brazil, one of the worst natural disasters in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Two years earlier, a deluge in the city of Petr\u00f3polis outside Rio de Janeiro left 241 people dead.<\/p>\n

Experts have linked most of these events to the effects of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three firefighters pulled a man\u2019s body from the mud amid the rubble of houses swept away in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-497618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}