Mourning, shock and chaos: Rio again cries over rain tragedy

By Diana Renee Apr 7, 2010, 0:33 GMT

   Rio de Janeiro - 'Don't leave your homes!'

'Get out of your homes!'

Rio de Janeiro authorities issued contradictory orders Tuesday, as they tried to cope with the disastrous aftermath of heavy rain.

From late Monday, rain caused death and destruction and generally wreaked havoc in Brazil's most famous and second-largest city, the one that is set to host in 2016 the first Olympics ever held in South America.

The opposing orders targetted different people. While the first sought to suspend activity in the city at the worst of the flooding, the second was addressed mainly at residents of the favelas (slums) built on Rio's hillsides, where mudslides killed most of the over 50 confirmed dead in the city's metropolitan area.

According to Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, at least 10,000 families in the city live in areas that are at risk of mudslides. Even so, these people refuse to leave, for fear of losing whatever little they manage to accumulate in their precarious homes, and also because they have nowhere else to go.

The illegal occupation of hillsides is one of Rio's main problems, and Rio de Janeiro state Governor Sergio Cabral made it clear Tuesday that he was ready to fight it.

'We have to put an end to the populace-pleasing trend of allowing irregular occupations in areas of known mudslide risk,' Cabral said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - who was in Rio to launch works to improve conditions in a slum and was trapped in the city due to the rain - reinforced the governor's call for residents of vulnerable areas to leave their homes.

'Please, get out. It is necessary to be alive in order to face the problem. I have been told that this is the worst flooding in the history of Rio de Janeiro,' Lula said.

He also referred to past rain-related tragedies in 1966, 1988 and 1996.

For 9 million residents of the metropolis, Tuesday was not a typical day. Due to rainfall starting late Monday, thousands of people did not make it home at the end of their working day. Many spent the night in their cars, or on the street, or in one of only a few stores which kept their doors open.

The rain disrupted public transportation services. It affected the roads that link Rio with other cities. Santos Dumont airport, where air shuttle services to Sao Paulo take off and land, closed altogether.

Going from one neighbourhood to another became an ordeal.

   The combination of up to 30 centimetres of rain in some neighbourhoods and a high tide led to flooding in important avenues, which turned into rivers clogged with floating rubbish bags. The trash had been left out to be collected Tuesday, but that was just another of the public services that were not provided due to the rain.

The 'good news,' announced by Rio Public Security Minister Jose Mariano Beltrame, was that chaos did not lead to an increase in crime in an already violent city: No widespread theft was reported in the huge traffic jams caused by the rain.

The tragedy also led to near-heroic actions, like that starring Brazilian Olympic yachtsman Torben Grael.

Grael managed to save a woman and a child who were in a car being carried by raging flood waters. The car crashed into the sportsman's home in the town of Niteroi, near Rio. The vehicle's driver, however, died in the accident.