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Experts say that the recent deadly mudslides that killed 677 with 120 missing and 14,000 homeless are Brasil’s deadliest natural disaster.
For much of its history, it has been almost blessedly free of calamities like earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards and volcanoes. Only severe droughts have afflicted it.
That appears to have now changed -- dramatically.
“... in the last few years the increasing frequency of floods, high winds and storms has become part of the new normal of Brazil," said a UN official. “The political choice we have today is to not treat disasters as events that come and go, but decide that you plan for them and realize that they are very costly.”
There have been 37 disastrous floods since 2000. Seven occurred in 2009 and four in 2008. The rain-related disasters have affected nearly five million people over the last two decades.
But there was no integrated warning system in the state of Rio to warn residents to evacuate.
