By Michael Astor
The Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Rains resumed in southeastern Brazil after a brief respite, and the number of deaths related to the downpours rose to 28 in Rio de Janeiro state alone, the government said Monday.
Mudslides and flash floods have forced tens of thousands of people across the region to abandon their homes for temporary shelter in churches, schools, gymnasiums and other public buildings. Most of the victims were poor residents of shantytowns built precariously on hillsides, which collapsed under the heavy rains.
The bodies of a 4-year-old boy and a 48-year-old man were recovered from the Paraiba do Sul River in Rio late Sunday, the government news agency Agencia Brasil reported.
In neighboring Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state, four rivers breached their banks and at least three people were reported dead in mudslides Sunday.
In Minas Gerais state, just north of Rio, at least six deaths have been blamed on the rains since the beginning of the year and some 62 municipalities were under a state of emergency.
Henrique Oliveira, the subsecretary of the Environment in Campos, a city of 400,000 located 170 miles (275 kilometers) northeast of Rio, said the city had more than 6,000 homeless and a “countless” number driven from their homes because of the rain.
In Rio, federal officials on Sunday took a helicopter tour of the hardest-hit areas in the mountainous region north of Rio, and Gov. Sergio Cabral requested emergency federal aid in a meeting with local mayors and the national ministers of civil defense and integration.
National Integration Minister Pedro Brito told reporters that the government has as much as US$70 million (euro53 million) available to help victims.
Weather forecasters have predicted intermittent rains will continue until mid-January.