Death Toll Rises to Ten After Rio’s Heavy Rains

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The number of victims of Monday night’s heavy rains in Rio de Janeiro rose to ten yesterday as firefighters located a missing taxi with three people onboard that was buried under tons of mud, two residents of the Babilônia community, and two people in the Western region of the city, in Santa Cruz.

Lindenberg Martins, an application-based driver who was near Botafogo’s Rio Sul shopping center at the time of the avalanche, told G1 that he warned those stuck in traffic about the mudslide, including the taxi driver who was transporting the grandmother and child, later found buried underneath.

“I knocked on the (taxi) driver’s window and talked to him. ‘It is not a tree that fell,’ I told him. ‘There is a landslide happening, there is a lot of debris falling. Let’s get out of here,’ I said.”

The devastation around the city due to the rainstorm led to severe criticism of Rio de Janeiro mayor Marcelo Crivella.

“We are facing very serious problems of global warming. It never rained so much in such a short time,” justified Crivella during a press conference.

But analysts say that the destruction caused by the water was already expected.

“Year after year, (Rio) mayors are surprised by the heavy rains, but they have not invested in rainwater galleries. Even if they (galleries) were clean, the damage would occur. Investments in things like soil treatment are required to have more permeable areas and more water absorption,” engineer Manoel Lapa told G1.

Schools and public agencies opened today, but the main campus of Rio’s Federal University (UFRJ) remains closed as officials inspect the damage caused by the rain.