By Sarah de Sainte Croix, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ten towns in the state of Santa Catarina in the South of Brazil are in an official state of emergency and a further 25 are on high alert, following several days of heavy rain and flooding. The situation looks likely to get worse, with more rain forecast for the coming days.
According to CIRAM (the Information Centre for Environmental Resources and Hydrometeorology in Santa Catarina), an average of more than 100mm of rain has fallen across the region in the last three days, causing rivers to rise dangerously and provoking landslides in several locations.
At the time of writing, civil defense forces in Santa Catarina had declared that 489,703 people had been affected by the crisis, at least 1,314 had been left without a roof over their heads, and three people had been injured. The state government have made R$3 million available to attend to situation as it unfolds over the coming days.
This comes just nine months after intense tropical rainstorms swept across southeastern Brazil, devastating Região Serrana, the scenic, mountainous region of the Rio state that includes the major cities of Petrópolis, Teresópolis and Nova Friburgo.
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