Brazil floods kill over 39
BRAZIL: Floods after days of driving rain have killed at least 39 in
northeastern Brazil, and left 1,000 unaccounted for and another 100,000
people homeless, authorities said Monday.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called a crisis cabinet
meeting for Tuesday and said the government would make federal funds
available to help the homeless.
“Up until the early afternoon we had 26 confirmed dead in Alagoas
(state) and more than 1,000 people missing,” Alagoas Governor Teotonio
Vilela Filho said, quoted on the official Agencia Brasil news agency.
“We are praying for the missing to be found alive. But we are very
worried because bodies are starting to turn up on beaches and on
riverbanks,” Vilela told reporters at a press briefing before meeting
with Lula.
Civil defense officials in devastated Alagoas state said the Mundau
River burst its banks in the town of Uniao dos Palmares, leaving at
least 500 people unaccounted for there.
“Pernambuco state’s rivers all run out through Alagoas. Swollen as
they were they devastated cities,” a distraught Vilela explained. Rio De
Janeiro, Tuesday, AFP
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