Brasilia: The death toll from heavy rain in Brazil’s northeast Pernambuco state over the past week has increased to 107, with 11 people still missing, according to officials.
At least 6,650 people have been displaced by the rain, which caused major flooding and landslides that buried dozens of houses, causing most of the deaths in the state capital Recife and its metropolitan area, reports Xinhua news agency citing the officials as saying.
The death toll makes this the second-worst tragedy in Pernambuco’s history, after floods in May 1966 left 175 people dead.
Firefighters and the Brazilian Army were focusing on finding the bodies of those still missing with the help of trained rescue dogs.
As many as 24 Pernambuco municipalities have declared a state of emergency, and the federal government has announced it will earmark about $200 million to rebuild affected areas.
The rain also took a toll on the states of Sergipe, Paraiba, Rio Grande do Norte and Alagoas, where three people were killed and more than 18,000 were evacuated.
–IANS