At least 65 people have been killed after heavy rains battered parts of Brazil over the weekend. Local media reported that more than 3,500 people have been displaced by the storms.
The northern coast of São Paulo, a state in the southeastern part of Brazil, was hardest hit by the storms.
Landslides have destroyed roads, homes and businesses, and firefighters and police have been dispatched to the affected areas to help with rescue operations.
“I’ve lived here for 52 years and I’ve never seen such a natural disaster,” said the president of a small fishermen’s association, Ademir de Matos to Agencia Brasil.
Parts of the region have gone without drinking water for days as mudslides interrupted service. “We have to go to another part of the city to get water,” said Rivelino Rodrigues, a sailor from the city of São Sebastião, one of the city’s heavily affected by flooding.
The areas most affected by landslides are inhabited by poor families, who do not have decent housing conditions and, therefore, live in risky areas, on the banks of rivers or on the sides of dangerous mountains.
The state government immediately sent more than R$ 7 million (USD $1.4 million) to the most affected cities, in addition to coordinating part of the donations that arrive from all over the country.
Ordinary Brazilians too have been helping those who lost everything after the rain. So far, more than seven tons of food have been sent to the north coast, in addition to clothing, hygiene and cleaning items.
January and February are traditionally rainy months for Brazil, and natural disasters often result after heavy rains.
However, the rains on the north coast of São Paulo were far above average, according to weather experts.
According to José Marengo, Cemaden’s coordinator, global warming increases the concentration of moisture in the atmosphere, and this humid vapor serves as fuel for rains. “It allows the hydrological cycle to increase and rainfall systems to become more extreme,” said Marengo.