1 Month's Worth Of Rain In Rio In Just 4 Hours - 10 Confirmed Dead So Far

Last edited Wed Apr 10, 2019, 09:04 AM - Edit history (1)

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Heavy rains killed at least 10 people and left a trail of destruction in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, raising questions about the city's preparedness to deal with recurring extreme weather.

Torrents of water gushed down streets, sweeping up cars and uprooting trees after rains that began around rush hour Monday evening. Rains slowly weakened by Tuesday evening, but Mayor Marcelo Crivella said the city was still in "crisis" mode, the highest of three levels.

Schools were closed and people were urged to avoid non-essential traffic until further notice. City officials said 152 millimetres of rain fell in just four hours Monday night, more than the average for the whole month of April.

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Sirens sounded in 20 flood-prone areas of the city, alerting people to make their way to pre-established safe spaces. But no alarm was given in the Babilonia slum, which sits on a hill behind the iconic Sugarloaf mountain. The fire department said two women there died in a mudslide, and local residents complained about the lack of warning. The mayor, acknowledging the city's lack of preparedness for the deluge, said sirens did not sound in Babilonia because the water had not reached the minimum threshold to activate the alarms. He said officials would look into lowering this threshold in the future.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/brazil-rio-rain-deaths-1.5091370