Death toll in Rio storms reaches 661

 

Xinhua, January 18, 2011

The death toll from storms in Rio de Janeiro state has reached 661 as rescue works enter the sixth day Monday, local authorities said.

The rain in the state's mountainous region finally stopped Monday, making it easier for rescue workers to continue searching for the bodies of the storms' victims. However, the weather forecast still predicts rain for the next days.

During the weekend, it rained again in the cities damaged by the storms, causing even more damage. Several regions are still blocked by mudslides and are only accessible by helicopters.

The electricity and water distribution has already been reestablished in part of the region, the authorities said. The telephone services are slowly returning to normal as well, but many regions remain without coverage and residents cannot communicate with their relatives to tell them that they are alive.

"We do not have telephones, we can not contact with the people who want to know if we are well or not," said citizen Lucineia de Oliveira.

A field hospital was set up by the Brazilian Air Force in the region, the fourth so far. Besides tending to the injured, doctors are also vaccinating the survivors against tetanus and alerting the population for the high risk of leptospirosis.

Seven towns in the mountain range region have declared a state of calamity: Nova Friburgo, Teresopolis, Petropolis, Sao Jose do Vale do Rio Preto, Sumidouro, Bom Jardim, and Areal. According to the authorities, the reconstruction of the damaged towns will require about 2 million reais (1.1 million U.S. dollars).

Amid the disaster, there are reports of shop owners' taking advantage of the disaster to raise prices excessively. The Rio police, however, warned that those shop owners might be arrested for crime against the popular economy or even extortion.

"The measures must be as rigorous as possible, to inhibit such behavior," said the police's public relations officer, Colonel Lima Castro.

Rio's governor Sergio Cabral requested a change in the regulations of the federal government's housing program Minha Casa Minha Vida, so that all housing units in the program are reserved to the population living in risk areas. The governor also denied that the distribution of donations in the damaged area is uncoordinated.

"There is a lot of federal and state government structure helping the towns," he said.