At least five people died and about 430 were injurednine of them seriously, after a tornado with winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour caused enormous destruction in its wake in cities of Paranáa state in southern Brazil bordering Paraguay, the Civil Defense reported this Saturday.
The most affected cities were Rio Bonito do Iguaçuwhere four fatalities were reported, and Guarapuavawith one death, but at least 14 municipalities declared a state of emergency after the tornado passed through.
According to the Civil Defense, the phenomenon, with strong winds, storms and hail, destroyed about 80% of the buildings from Río Bonito do Iguaçu, a city of about 13,500 inhabitants and where the strong winds dislodged dozens of homes and brought down numerous trees and power line poles.
“Between 80 and 90% of the city was collapsed. We still do not have the exact number of people who are unsheltered,” said the Secretary of Public Security of Paraná, Colonel Hudson Leoncio Teixeira. At least 3,000 homes of this city continued without electricity and water services in the early hours of this Saturday.
Search and rescue tasks
The government of the state of Paraná set up a field hospital in the municipality to meet the high demand for health services and admitted that the number of victims may be higher.
Photograph of the destruction caused by a tornado this Saturday in the city of Rio Bonito do Iguaçu, state of Paraná (Brazil) / Paraná State Fire Department / EFE
“Our teams said they found a war scenario. We have firefighters from several regions of Paraná carrying out search and rescue tasks of victims. Our priority is to save the people who have not yet been located,” said the deputy commander general of the Paraná Fire Department, Jonas Emmanuel Benghi Pinto.
According to meteorological services, the destruction was caused by a tornado that formed inside a supercellas extreme storms are known that are characterized by their long duration and the presence of a main rotating updraft.
“The Civil Defense and our security forces are on alert, mobilized and attending to the cities affected by the strong storms,” said the governor of Paraná, Ratinho Junior, in a message on his social networks, who plans to travel to the region this Saturday.
The other two southern states of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, declared the state of emergency due to the record of an extratropical cyclone moving north.
The Sao Paulo governoratethe most populous state in Brazil, sent alert messages to the inhabitants of several municipalities regarding the possibility of this cyclone reaching their territory this Saturday.
The alerts occur two days after the start in the Brazilian city of Bethlehemin the Amazon, of the COP30 Climate Conferencein which global adaptation measures are analyzed given the conviction that extreme phenomena have multiplied throughout the world as a consequence of climate change.
