BBC News | AMERICAS | Brazil mudslides kill 13

BBC News Online: World: Americas

Tuesday, 29 February, 2000, 06:52 GMT

Brazil mudslides kill 13

By Stephen Cviic in Sao Paulo

At least 13 people have been killed in a mudslide following heavy rains in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo.

The people are used to the devastating effects of the summer rains, which regularly leave some of the city's main thoroughfares waist-deep in water. But it is rare for the weather to have such terrible consequences.

It has been several years since so many people died in a single thunderstorm. A fireman searches for suvivors with his dog

A fireman searches for suvivors with his dog

Most of the victims perished as the result of a mudslide. Their flimsy wooden shacks built at the side of a hill in Sao Paulo's southern suburbs were completely buried and rescuers had to work for several hours to find all the bodies.

Human error

This has been a particularly wet summer in south-eastern Brazil but weather experts point out that Monday's two-hour storm was quite normal for the time of year and the disastrous consequences are mainly the result of human error.

Sao Paulo is a vast, damp, hilly metropolis of 16 million people and it has spent the past 40 years being concreted.

Now the water has nowhere to go and hastily built shanty towns are constantly at risk from mudslides.

The city council and state government are making some effort to build new drainage systems but for the time being the people of Sao Paulo know that every time it rains heavily they can expect at least chaos and sometimes tragedy.

Related to this story:
Brazil suffers flood chaos (05 Jan 00 | Americas)
Flood deaths blamed on past mistakes (22 Dec 99 | Americas)
Venezuela fears further floods (01 Jan 00 | Americas)
Brazil floods kill 26 (05 Jan 00 | Americas)

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