The rain began Monday afternoon in southeastern Brazil and did not stop. By Wednesday morning, at least 32 people were dead across two cities in Minas Gerais, 38 were still missing, and thousands had lost their homes in a disaster that has overwhelmed local rescue capacity and drawn federal emergency support.
A Night of Landslides and Flooding
Juiz de Fora, a city of 560,000 residents about 310 kilometers north of Rio de Janeiro, bore the heaviest toll. At least 25 people died there, many buried in their homes during the night as saturated hillsides gave way. Mayor Margarida Salomão reported at least 20 landslides across the city, with the neighborhoods of Parque Burnier, JK, Santa Rita, Vila Ideal and Lourdes among the worst hit. Among the victims were students and a schoolteacher.
Civil Defense declared a state of public calamity in the early hours of Tuesday, suspended all municipal school classes and ordered 600 families to evacuate. Some 3,000 people have been displaced, with many taken to temporary shelters where volunteers and officials distribute food, medicine and hygiene supplies. Hospitals in the region reported treating dozens of injured residents with varying degrees of trauma.
In Ubá, about 110 kilometers away, seven people died — one by electrocution — after the river that crosses the city burst its banks on Monday night, flooding the Beira Rio avenue and submerging vehicles and ground-floor homes. Nearby Matias Barbosa also declared a state of calamity to speed access to federal reconstruction funds.
Record Rainfall, Unstable Ground
Juiz de Fora’s city hall said February 2026 has been the wettest on record, with cumulative rainfall reaching 584 millimeters — more than double the expected monthly average. Between Monday and Tuesday alone, up to 200 millimeters fell in 24 hours, with one gauge in the Nossa Senhora de Lourdes neighborhood recording 191 millimeters, including over 100 millimeters in a single four-hour window. The Rio Paraibuna and several streams overflowed, closing bridges and cutting roads.
More than 108 firefighters from the Minas Gerais state department have been deployed to Juiz de Fora and 28 to Ubá, working with disaster-trained search dogs to comb through mounds of debris. More than 200 people have been rescued so far. But the work is slow: teams said the high volume of mud requires extreme precision to avoid further harm to anyone trapped below. One boy was pulled alive from beneath a collapsed house after rescuers dug for two hours.
More Rain Forecast
Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology has issued heavy-rain alerts for parts of 14 states, covering the entire territories of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Authorities are warning residents to stay away from hillside areas and riverbanks as further precipitation threatens to complicate search-and-rescue operations.
A Recurring Pattern
President Lula pledged humanitarian assistance, restoration of basic services and support for reconstruction. But the disaster joins a grim and growing list. In 2024, unprecedented flooding in southern Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul killed more than 200 people and affected two million. In 2022, a deluge in Petrópolis, outside Rio de Janeiro, left 241 dead. Brazil’s peak summer rainy season, running from December to March, brings intense downpours to cities where decades of unregulated hillside construction have placed vulnerable communities directly in the path of landslides. Experts have linked the increasing frequency and intensity of these events to climate change — a pattern that shows no sign of breaking.