At least two people died in a landslide that swept away 16 vehicles in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, rescue teams said Tuesday.
The accident occurred Monday night, on the highway that connects the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina, next to the border with Argentina, in the municipality of Guaratuba.
The mudslide cut off traffic in both directions and swept at least 10 cars and six trucks off the road, according to a statement.
Rescue teams have already rescued six people, but local firefighters have indicated the death toll could rise as rescue operations continue in heavy rain.
In October, heavy rains killed six people traveling in a vehicle swept away by the current in Paraná.
Some 40 cities in that state suffered damage from the rains, which affected more than 22,000 people, causing more than 2,000 to abandon their homes.
This year has been especially tragic in Brazil, with thousands of people evacuated and hundreds of fatalities, after strong storms in the states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and now Pernambuco.
In late May, landslides and flooding killed 128 people in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.
In the city of Petrópolis, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, an intense storm left around 240 dead in February.
Brazil is already feeling “the effects of climate change: droughts, extreme temperatures and floods,” Edegar de Oliveira, of the World Wide Fund for Nature, said in August.
In July, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) had warned that extreme events such as extreme rainfall are affecting Latin America and the Caribbean.
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas stated that “hydrometeorological hazards such as droughts, heat and cold waves, tropical cyclones and floods have caused the loss of hundreds of lives, severe damage to agricultural production and the infrastructure, and population displacement.
Source: TSF
