Yesterday, rained so much that... Click on the links to see the pics: http://odia.terra.com.br/portal/galerias/geradas/O_DIA_ONLINE_temporal_atinge_o_rio_1058.html http://extra.globo.com/rio/fotogaleria/2010/11369/ http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/fotogaleria/2010/11369/ http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/fotogaleria/2010/11368/ http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/fotogaleria/2010/11370/ It took me almost 7 hours to get home yesterday. And i did left work at 19:00. Today, the mayor asked the people to stay at home. There are still places under water, and the ones that aren't are covered with mud and garbage (garbage cans were easily carried). From recent news, 68 people died yesterday (20 apparently missing). The rain continues, although not as heavy as yesterday. Edited: In 14 hours rained two times what was expected for the whole month.
Whoa, thats bad. I am from São Paulo and we are currently having rain, but not as bad as at there. Saw some photos on the morning news and they looked terrible. :/ Good luck out there!
Believe me, that was not the case. The problem is the lack of capability to drain the water. Some of the rivers that cross the city are to narrow these days, the manhole covers and storm drain pipes are filled with mud and trash, and the people that throw trash on the streets. The part that suffered the most was the downtown, that needs better / modern water storm drainage pipes. The downtown is the oldest part of the city. There's one are called "Praça da Bandeira" that always floods with heavy rain. The Maracanã river is the same thing. Don't forget that Rio has lots of mountains and hills, so heavy rain brings mud and dirt to the streets, and also the danger of landslides. The number of people that died has risen to 82. Specialists say it was the biggest storm in the last 30 years. Live coverage of Globonews: http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Noticias/0,,GIM61910-7823-GLOBO+NEWS+AO+VIVO,00.html CET Rio cameras around the city (those are cameras to help controlling traffic congestion) http://rjtv.globo.com/Jornalismo/RJTV/0,,9120-p-334794,00.html BBC coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8605386.stm
Nice way to show respect for those who died... By the way, the death number has now risen to 102 people.
Niterói, the city on the other side of the Guanabaray Bay is suffering a lot. A heavy mudslide has destroyed lots of houses. I think it will take weeks before they clean everything and finish the search for victims. The total number of deaths in the state is now 179. Niterói with 104 deaths, Rio with 55, São Gonçado with 16 and the remaining from Petrópolis, Nilópolis, Paulo de Frontin and Magé. I'm ok and my neighbourhodd never suffered any floods, but some areas of the city are still with lots of mud and dirt on the streets.
They can just reclaim land, like half of Tokyo... then just have to worry about it breaking off and floating to Hawaii when the big Earthquake comes.
Crazy, alot of disasters going on lately. Honestly san diego got that way the last two big rain storms. Rain actually covered some streets even the wind knocked some bench buses over, power lines and trees smashing cars, and yes even mudslides. But still I don't think it can compare to this. Sorry to hear about this johnny, has anyone you know been effected by this?
Well, everything is going back to normal now, apart from some parts of the city still being cleaned, and of course the heavy landslides on Niterói city that caused a lot of deaths. The only problems people i know had, was waiting hours on traffic congestions, buses... Thankfully i left my car at home, otherwise i could've been damaged on those floods. And i honestly can't have expenses on that right now.
@Johnny: What I can't understand is, didn't the city authorities know about such risks? Why didn't they do anything to prevent, or at least, minimize it? We already had Angra dos Reis tragedy in January, I thought that would alert the government...
Although Angra dos Reis was a different situation, yes, the government could prevent / minimize these problems. The Maracanã river always overflows. The region around Praça da Bandeira is the exact same thing. And this happens since the 80's, but this time rained so much that was even worse. The problem on those cases are old / insufficent drainage pipelines. With the World Cup and the Olympics on the horizon, they must replace these since it's on the Maracanã stadium area. The people that build favelas on the hills are also blame. They destroy the trees and soil, so when a heavy rain starts, the mud goes to the streets, drainage system. Also, the people that live in Rio must start having a little more respect to the city, by not throwing paper, and any sort of trash on the streets. This blocks the drainage system and makes the situation worse. The politics then must do their job and modernize the city system as a whole, including an better emergence system. And try to kill the burocracy for investments on the city. Eike Batista (very rich man) for example, has a big project for the Rodrigo de Freitas lake area, that would fix the overflow problem, make it's surroundings even more beautiful and improve the water renewal by modernizing it's connection to the sea. All being paid by his company, EBX. Still, on the last 6 months no one at the government gave him the permission to start the project. Since it's a area that will be used at the Olympics, i don't see why the delay.
This debate of improving the infrastructure has been going on for a long time, so I doubt anything will be done, but only enough for the Olympic games. If a disaster like this happens again during the games, then the country will most likely never get any major international events again....
