Rains leave 1,200 homeless and 300 displaced in Rio de Janeiro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Civil Defense of Rio de Janeiro continues to monitor the weather conditions in the state after the heavy rains that hit Rio’s municipalities in recent days.

By late Monday afternoon, January 10, 1,200 people were homeless and 300 displaced.

At least 10 cities were affected by overflowing rivers in the state’s north and northwest, such as Itaperuna, Italva, Natividade, Porciúncula, Bom Jesus do Itabapoana, Laje do Muriaé, Cambuci, Aperibé, Santo Antônio de Pádua, and Cardoso Moreira.

In the Mountain Region, landslides, flooding, road blocks, collapsed walls and trees were recorded in Carmo, Petrópolis, Teresópolis, Nova Friburgo, Cordeiro, São Sebastião de Alto, Cantagalo, Macuco and Trajano de Moraes.

In the south of the state there was a landslide and road blocks in Mendes.

In the Metropolitan Region, there are records of landslides, collapsed trees and walls in Niterói and Cachoeiras de Macacu.

The forecast for Tuesday, January 11, is for cloudy to overcast skies with moderate to occasionally heavy rains in the south, Costa Verde, Capital and Mountain regions, starting in the morning and extending until late afternoon. In other regions weak to moderate rains are forecast throughout the period.

According to the Civil Defense, there is still a moderate, high or very high hydrological risk for all of Rio de Janeiro due to the accumulated rainfall in the country’s southeast over the past 96 hours, mainly in the state of Minas Gerais.

Due to rising river levels in the main watersheds of the state, flooding and mudslides are expected throughout the state, particularly in the mountainous, northwestern and northern regions.