Global General
At least 200 buried, feared dead in Rio mudslide
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-04-09 00:33
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NITEROI, Brazil - At least 200 people were buried under tons of mud and feared dead on Thursday after a slum built atop a former landfill gave way in the latest deadly landslide to hit metro Rio de Janeiro.
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 Relatives of victims react after a landslide at Vicoso Jardim neighborhood in Niteroi, 15 miles (24 km) away from downtown Rio de Janeiro, April 8, 2010. A landslide swept away dozens of houses near Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday night, worsening a disaster caused by heavy rains that has killed at least 138 people around Brazil's second-biggest city. [Agencies]
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If confirmed, the deaths would raise the toll sharply from the 153 people already known to have died this week in slides triggered by record rains.
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"In our experience, it's an instant death" for anyone caught in such a slide, Machado said.
The shantytown was built on a former garbage dump where trash had accumulated for decades _ making the ground there especially unstable and vulnerable to the heavy rains, said Agostinho Guerreiro, president of Rio's main association of engineers and architects.
"It is very fragile soil. It couldn't hold (the rain). The houses came down, destroying the ones below them," Guerreiro told Globo. "It was a tragedy foretold."
The federal government announced an emergency fund of 200 million reals ($114 million) to help the state deal with the mudslides and flooding.
A fire department spokesman said six bodies had been found so far in the Morro Bumba and 28 people were rescued after the mudslide hit late Wednesday.
Alves Souza, commander of the firefighters in the Niteroi rescue operations, said the wet, steep terrain posed a continued threat to anyone trapped in the wreckage and emergency crews as well.
"The work is very intense, given the fact that the volume of material we have here is very large," Souza said.
Record rainfall since Monday has triggered deadly mudslides across Rio's metropolitan area.
Firefighters said the official death toll stands at 153, but that does not include those buried in Morro Bumba.
Nearly all the deaths occurred in mudslides that smashed through slums _ yet another reminder that life in one of the world's most famous playgrounds is much different for the poor than it is for the rich.
Residents of the shantytowns often endure dangers such as the frequent shootouts between police and heavily armed drug gangs, and when heavy rain falls on slopes crowded with poorly built shacks, nature itself can deal out death.
