Historic rain and mudslides in Brazil city kill at least 78

“It’s almost a warlike situation,” Rio de Janeiro Gov. Cláudio Castro said at a news briefing. “All of our teams are mobilized: firefighters, departments and all other state agencies.”

Castro said it was “the greatest rain since 1932,” characterizing the catastrophe as so unprecedented that it was difficult to take preventive measures.

Emergency responders have rescued 21 people, officials said, and at least 400 have been left homeless. Authorities do not know how many remain missing, and they have called in heavy machinery to help dig through the rubble.

For Brazil, which battles flooding and landslides every year during rainy season, the scenes from Petrópolis were painfully familiar, recalling a 2011 disaster that killed more than 900 in the same area. More recently, heavy rains led to 24 deaths in Sao Paulo state in January. The country’s heavily populated southeast is especially vulnerable, and experts say climate change is exacerbating this deadly extreme weather.

Petrópolis, located about 40 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro city, was one of the country’s first planned cities, but the population has since grown vertically, building precarious homes atop mountains that are especially at-risk during downpours.

Images from this week’s rain and its aftermath showed torrents of rainwater whipping through the city’s steep streets. It flooded public squares, inundating shops and homes. The mud overturned cars and swept aside structures.

The search-and-rescue effort, which included firefighters and military police, also drew residents, who combed the piles looking for loved ones and neighbors.

Rosilene Virgilio, 49, told the Associated Press that she heard someone pleading for help, screaming, “Get me out of here!”

“But we couldn’t do anything; the water was gushing out, the mud was gushing out,” Virgilio said. “Our city unfortunately is finished.”