Flooding and landslides triggered by torrential rain in Brazil claimed at least 36 lives on Carnival weekend in southeast Sao Paulo state, authorities said Sunday.
TV and social media footage from the town of Sao Sebastiao showed entire neighborhoods under water, debris from hillside houses swept away by oozing earth, flooded highways and cars destroyed by fallen trees, among other damage.
At least 35 people died in Sao Sebastiao, the state government said. A girl was also killed in the town of Ubatuba, news reports said.
“Unfortunately, we are going to have many more deaths,” the state civil defense chief, Henguel Pereira, told the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
Another 228 people were left homeless and 338 were evacuated in the coastal region north of the city of Sao Paulo, the state government said earlier, as rescue crews raced to help those hit by the storm
