The highly populated cities of Teresopolis, Nova Friburgo, Pertopolis, and Sumidouro were hit the worst by the torrential downpours, causing extreme floods, mudslides, and landslides. In just three days, the death toll has reached an astonishing 500 and counting as the floods continue, making this Brazil’s most detrimental natural disaster in recent history. Close to 3,000 homes have been destroyed and another 5,000 evacuated, over 15,000 people have been left homeless, and the property damage is expected to be in the billions.
Conditions in the state were so dangerous Thursday night that even the rescue teams had to evacuate until the morning. Some areas have been destroyed so completely that rescuers cannot even access them, as they have been literally buried under the excessive mud.
Newly sworn in President Dilma Rousseff observed the affected area by helicopter last night, and has pledged to give R$ 780 million (about $466 million USD) to the area for reconstruction. Other corporations and countries have also been finding ways to help, such as oil company Petrobas which donated 13 helicopters to help the rescue relief, and the Brazilian Navy, which has been helping to set up homeless shelters.
Because reports of the floods have just recently been making their appearance in the mainstream U.S. news media, there are not many funds that have been set up to help Brazil thus far. After a little research, I found a blog posting which outlines a few ways that you can help, which can be found here. Also, you can always donate straight to the Brazilian Red Cross by clicking here, and if you do not speak Portuguese, you can translate the page through Google.Now is certainly a time that many of you will want to check in on any relative or friends in Brazil. Our rates to Rio de Janeiro landlines are currently 3.9 cents per minute, while our Brazil mobile rates are 12.99 cents per minute, which is 10 cents cheaper than Skype. To see the low-rates to the rest of Brazil, click here.
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