Over 200 mm of rain in just six hours has caused landslides and flooding in areas around Recife, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Pernambuco.
Recife Civil Defence say that they received over 200 calls for assistance on Monday 30 May and located over 90 landslide or potential landslide sites. Roads in the metropolitan and surrounding areas have also been flooded causing major traffic problems. Over 70 people have been evacuated from areas near the Beberibe River. Recife Civil Defence has issued two alerts via SMS calling for the immediate departure of over 15,000 residents living in risk areas.
A young girl was killed when a landslide buried her home in Córrego do Passarinho in Olinda, a city around 10 km north of Recife. At least 3 buildings were completely destroyed in the landslide.
In a separate incident, Agencia Brasil are reporting that two women and a child of the same family are feared dead after they were buried in a landslide in bairro de Águas Compridas, also in Olinda.
The government of Recife say that the city is fully mobilized to carry out prevention and reduction of risks and inconvenience caused by the heavy rainfall. Over 1,200 personnel are helping carry out evacuations and flood and landslide prevention.
80 mm of Rain in 1 Hour
Officials in Recife say that 235 mm of rain fell between 22:00 Sunday 29 May and 10:00 Monday 30 May, 2016. As much as 80 mm fell in just one hour, between 05:00 and 06:00. Normally the area would expect to see 328 mm of rain for the whole of May.
Further south, parts of the state of of Alagoas have also experienced heavy rain. Maceió recorded 87.8mm in a 24 hour period between 29 and 30 May 2016.
Flood Summary
Locations
Magnitude
Recife - May 29 to May 30, 2016
Damages
Olinda
Olinda
Recife
Evacuation notices were served by local authorities for 15,000 people
