Toll hits 84 in Brazil flooding

Rescue workers found dozens of bodies as they dug desperately through the wreckage of homes engulfed by mudslides in southern Brazil, boosting the death toll from rain-spawned hillside collapses and floods to 84.

As many as 30 people still were missing in small cities and towns across Santa Catarina state, where torrential weekend rains dumped as much water as the area usually gets in four months and far surpassed records going back to 1961.

Helicopters rescued at least 300 residents in Santa Catarina’s Itajai river valley who were surrounded by water.

Most of the dead were killed in mudslides that swept away homes and businesses, and more than 54,000 were displaced, civil defence chiefs said. Yesterday alone, the death toll rose sharply when officials reported the discovery of 25 more bodies.

Eight municipalities with nearly 100,000 residents remained isolated and were running short of everything from drinking water to medicine and fuel.

Business and industry was largely paralysed across much of Santa Catarina because one of the mudslides ruptured a pipeline that supplies natural gas from Bolivia, an essential fuel for cooking, cars and Brazilian factories. Six large textile mills shut down as a result, Brazil’s Valor Economico business newspaper reported.

Officials said it could take three weeks to repair the pipeline break in a remote area and the rupture also interrupted the flow of natural gas to the neighbouring state of Rio Grande do Sul that borders Argentina and Uruguay.

Seventeen highways were blocked by mudslides. Officials said it could take days to reopen several that were piled high with earth and trees.

Hardest hit was the city of Blumenau, where 20 people died when they were buried by mudslides.

Another 15 people suffered serious injuries, according to the civil defence.

Half the city of nearly 300,000 had no electricity, and 500 soldiers were sent in to help in the renowned tourist destination.

Fifteen people died in the nearby town of Ilhota along the banks of the Itajai River, where waters rose 30ft above normal.