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Brazil rescuers resume search for flood victims

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-01 09:40

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Rescue workers took advantage of clear skies Sunday to resume searching for victims of devastating floods that have killed 114 people and ravaged more than a dozen cities in southern Brazil.

A general view shows a flooded Itajai city in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina November 26, 2008. Rescue workers took advantage of clear skies Sunday to resume searching for victims of devastating floods that have killed 114 people in southern Brazil.[Agencies]

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Heavy rains subsided, allowing authorities to continue looking for 19 people thought to be missing across Santa Catarina state and to boost aid to some 80,000 people whom floods have driven from their homes in the past week.

Bad weather had grounded air force helicopters on Saturday, slowing rescue efforts. Rains are forecast to resume in coming days, increasing the risk of mudslides.

The floods had killed 114 people as of Sunday night, the state's civil defense department said in a statement on its Web site. Nine bodies were pulled from beneath the mud and rubble the day before.

Nearly 80,000 people were taking shelter in churches, schools, gymnasiums and other public buildings, relying on volunteers and troops for medicine, food, water and clothes.

Officials on Sunday set up an army field hospital near the hard-hit cities of Itajai and Ilhota, where 39 people have died, mostly in mudslides. The hospital was expected to be fully functional on Monday.