MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Manaus: Landslide leaves at least eight dead after heavy rains

There was no previous indication that the area could be at risk, Mayor Almeida explained

Authorities said that at least eight people, including four girls, had been killed after a landslide caused by heavy rains in Manaus, in the Brazilian State of Amazonas. The event occurred late Sunday in the precarious Nova Floresta neighborhood in Manaus.

Manaus Mayor David Almeida of the right-wing Avante Party said Civil Defense had not been alerted about problems in that neighborhood. “The information we have is that the large accumulation of garbage in the neighborhood plus the heavy rains caused the landslides,” he explained.

“There were 110 calls during Sunday, but none were from that point. According to neighbors, there was no occurrence in the afternoon. The information is that the accumulation of garbage, with the large volume of water, ended up causing this tragedy,” Almeida said.

Integration and Regional Development Minister Waldez Goes explained that at least 4 million Brazilians were living in areas at risk due to a lack of housing solutions in 14,000 points considered critical, mostly favelas built on hillsides with the possibility of landslides due to tropical rains.

State Governor Wilson Lima toured the area in the early hours of Monday. He said that “there are 44 men from the Fire Department and Civil Defense, besides men from the Military Police, psychologists, and social workers” assisting the victims.

“It is a place of difficult access, very difficult to reach with equipment, but we already have lighting and we will bring more support to help in the searches,” Lima also said.

Rains in Brazil this summer caused more than two hundred victims nationwide. The most serious event occurred in February with 64 deaths in the coastal municipality of Sao Sebastiao, in the State of Sao Paulo, as a result of landslides that buried shantytowns located in risk areas.