Government Issues Storm Alert in Brazil’s Southeast for Next Few Days

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The federal government issued yesterday, February 28th, an alert for heavy rainfall in the states of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. According to the agencies involved in monitoring the weather, flooding and landslides may occur until Wednesday, March 4th, as a result of storms.

According to the federal bodies, the data were sent to the states’ Civil Defense organizations, which should take the appropriate preventive measures, such as alerting people living in areas at risk of landslides regarding escape routes and how to seek safe points in case disasters are confirmed.

According to the Ministry of Regional Development (MDR), the Civil Defense has a natural disaster alert service that works through text messages (SMS) on cell phones and messages on pay-TV channels. In order to register, sending an SMS with a local zip code to the number 40199 is required. After that, citizens will receive another SMS with the confirmation of registration. On TVs, the message will automatically appear on the screen of the device. The service is free.

Rain monitoring is performed by the National Institute of Space Research (CPTEC/INPE) and the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET), in addition to two other bodies that analyze the risk of natural disasters.

Source: Agência Brasil