Brazil Landslides: At Least 91 Dead, Many More Are Missing as Heavy Rains Trigger Disaster Zone

Authorities in northeastern Brazil's Pernambuco state reported 91 deaths from floods over the weekend on Monday, with more than a dozen others still missing.

Hundreds of state and federal rescuers were searching for the 26 persons who were now unaccounted for. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro traveled over the damaged area of Pernambuco's city, Recife, and neighboring Jaboatao dos Guararapes on Monday. He later told reporters that the saturated dirt made landing in the chopper impossible.

Bolsonaro Visits Disaster Zone After Deadly Rains

He also mentioned that comparable calamities had lately occurred in the highlands above Rio de Janeiro, in southern Bahia state, and Minas Gerais state. According to Daniel Ferreira, the minister of regional development, the government is trying to make money accessible to towns that have declared a state of emergency. He also mentioned a new credit line open to towns hit by natural calamities.

Climate change, according to experts, adds to more severe rainfall, and Recife's metropolitan region has been designated as one of the world's most susceptible cities by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The low-lying metro area, which includes floodplains and a network of hundreds of canals, is home to around 4 million people.

Recife became the first Latin American city to sign up for a program to generate insurance against climate disasters launched by a network of municipal and regional governments and funded by the German development bank KfW in March.

The state's civil defense administration stated in a statement that the flooding has affected 5,000 people and that the risk of landslides remains high. Rain has persisted, but with less intensity, South China Morning Post reported.

At Least 32,000 Families Are at Risk in Brazil's Landslides

Hundreds of Brazilians died in flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains in the last year. More than 230 people were slain at Petropolis, the 19th-century summer capital of the Brazilian empire, in Rio de Janeiro state, in February. Fourteen additional people were killed by floods and landslides in the state earlier this month. According to experts, the rainy season in Brazil is being exacerbated by La Nina (the periodic cooling of the Pacific Ocean) and climate change.

Because a hotter atmosphere contains more water, global warming increases the likelihood and severity of floods caused by heavy rains. The risks posed by heavy rains are exacerbated by geography and inadequate construction in shantytowns situated on steep slopes.

In accordance with MetSul meteorologist Estael Sias, the heavy rains lashing Pernambuco and, to a lesser extent, four other northeastern states are the result of a typical seasonal phenomenon known as eastern waves, which are areas of atmospheric disturbance that move from Africa to Brazil's northeastern coastal region, as per IOL.

According to the state administration, another 765 individuals were forced to abandon their houses, at least temporarily. Brazil's federal emergency agency, authorities in the neighboring state of Alagoas have recorded two deaths.

As reported by Pernambuco's civil defense service, around 32,000 households reside in locations prone to landslides or flooding. Many of the fatalities on Friday and Saturday (local time) happened in Recife, the state capital of Pernambuco.

Many of Recife's neighborhoods, like many others in Brazil, were developed in places prone to land and mudslides, according to ABC News.

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