São Paulo Floods Displace 110 Families in the Vale do Ribeira
BRAZIL · SÃO PAULO
Key Facts
- —Where São Paulo state, and mostly not the city everyone pictures.
- —When Three days of heavy rain from Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 September.
- —Who was hit The Vale do Ribeira, a poor river region in the south of the state, and the Itapeva area inland.
- —The deaths At least two people drowned in floodwater. One person is still missing.
- —The displacement 110 families out of their homes, and 19 shelters open across six municipalities.
- —A figure to separate A toll of eight is circulating. Six of those died in a building collapse that civil defence has not linked to the rain.
São Paulo is a city of 12 million and a state of 44 million. The rain that displaced 110 families last week fell mostly on the part nobody photographs.
Three days of rain drove 110 families out of their homes in São Paulo state. Most of them live in a river region five hours from the city.
What the Water Did
The rain ran from Thursday 10 September through Saturday 12 September. Forecasters expected another 150 millimetres on the coast over the following two days.
Civil defence counted 110 families out of their homes. Sixty-eight of those are in the Vale do Ribeira, and 42 around Itapeva.
Nineteen shelters opened across six municipalities. Sixteen roads closed.
In Eldorado, 54 families, 173 people in all, were taken out of their houses. In Sete Barras, 50 homes were reached by an overflowing river.
The Two Who Drowned
At least two people died in floodwater, and one remains missing.
In Jandira, on the western edge of greater São Paulo, three people were swept away. A woman was found on Friday and a man on Sunday.
Accounts of the second death differ. Agência Brasil places both in Jandira. Metrópoles places one in Itaquaquecetuba.
Both trace to civil defence tallies issued at different hours, and neither has been corrected.
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The Collapse That Is Being Folded In
A figure of at least eight dead has travelled widely. It comes from a tally that adds two separate events together.
Six of those deaths happened in Penha, in the east of the city, in the early hours of Saturday. A twelve-storey building under construction fell onto the houses beside it.
The site had been under an embargo since 2021, meaning work there was not supposed to be happening at all.
Civil defence said it could not yet connect the collapse to the rain. Governor Tarcisio de Freitas pointed at the embargo instead.
The dead in Penha were five Bolivians and one Paraguayan, among them a pregnant woman and a child. Their bodies are being repatriated.
The Part of São Paulo Nobody Films
The Vale do Ribeira is the poorest region in the state, a valley of small towns along a river that floods readily.
It sits in the far south, closer to Paraná than to the financial districts that define São Paulo abroad.
Itapeva lies inland to the south-west, in farming country. Neither appears in coverage of São Paulo in an ordinary week.
That geography explains why the displacement figure is high while the capital mostly saw flooded streets and stalled traffic.
Reading a Civil Defence Tally
Three sets of housing figures are in circulation, and all of them are real.
One gives 110 families displaced across the state. Another lists removals municipality by municipality. A third, earlier and covering only the capital, gives 23 people made homeless.
They are snapshots taken at different hours of a moving emergency, and they describe overlapping groups of people.
The shelters remain open, and the forecast pointed to more heavy rain on the coast.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many died in the São Paulo rains?
At least two people drowned in floodwater, and one person is still missing.
Why do some reports say eight?
That tally adds six deaths from a building collapse in Penha, which civil defence has not linked to the rain.
How many people are displaced?
110 families, with 19 shelters open across six municipalities.
Which areas were worst hit?
The Vale do Ribeira and the Itapeva region, in the south and south-west of São Paulo state.
When did it rain?
From Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 September 2026, with more forecast for the coast.
Was the city of São Paulo affected?
Mainly through flooded streets and traffic. The displacement is outside the capital.
Sources: Defesa Civil de São Paulo, Agência Brasil, Metrópoles, CNN Brasil.
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