At least two dead and 30 missing is the balance left by a land displacement who dragged 16 vehicles on a highway in Paraná in the south of the South on Monday Brazil. Weather conditions prevented rescuers from advancing with rescue operations.
The avalanche occurred last Monday night in national road BR 367, in the municipality of Guaratuba, state of Paraná, hit by heavy rains for several days. The mud took everything in its path and covered several meters of the asphalt road, where the vehicles were barely visible. Ten cars and six trucks were buried.
Impressive images released by the firefighters show a huge brown spot advancing amid the lush vegetation of this mountainous region. So far, difficult rescue tasks have allowed us to find two casualties and six survivors.
One of the people who survived was the mayor of Guaratuba himself, Roberto Justus. Together with her driver, she was inside one of the cars that were overwhelmed by the landslide. They managed to get out by breaking the glass. “It was awful, the mountain fell on us and took all the cars. We are alive only by the grace of God,” she said in a video she posted on her social media about her.
And he completed: “It was lots of earth, lots of stone that came over the cars, the mud got under the car, lifted it up and threw the others who were still on top of it”.
“There are 54 firefighters at work continuouslyfor more than 35 hours,” the Paraná Security Secretariat reported on Wednesday afternoon.
The rains complicate rescue operations
Meanwhile, he explained that the possible rains are one of the “main challenges” for the rescuers, due to the concern that “new landslides” will occur.“, He added.
“We cannot specify the exact number of missing persons, because each vehicle can carry between one and five people. Our guess is that there might be between 30 and 50 missing“, said the commander of the Paraná fire brigade, Manoel Vasco de Figueiredo Junior.
Furthermore, he specified that drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras were being used, although he warned that the heat sensor did not help identify other survivors, therefore there are no longer believed to be alive at the location.
The traffic police specified that the motorway concession company, Arteris Litoral Sul, should have closed the entire motorway to traffic after the first landslide, which was less serious and occurred four hours before the main one.
The weather warning for heavy rains has been extended not only to other states in southern Brazil, but also to other regions of the country, according to records from the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet).
In the northwestern state of Sergipe, at least one person died this morning after being pulled into his vehicle while driving on the highway.
According to images broadcast on television, part of the road completely collapsed due to the huge flow of water generated by the rain.
With information from Telam.
IT
Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.