Data from the Civil Defense of Minas Gerais indicate that the current rainy season (starting on October 1, 2025 and expected to end at the end of March) is the deadliest in the last 20 years in the State. This is due to the historic rain recorded this week in Zona da Mata, which mainly hit the cities of Juiz de Fora and Ubá.
Until this Friday afternoon (27), the number of deaths between the two cities exceeded 60, according to the Fire Department. Four people are still missing amid the rubble and hundreds of families are homeless or displaced. The storms caused
With these data, Minas Gerais recorded 81 deaths during this rainy season, according to a Civil Defense report. THE number of deaths exceeded that of the 2019-2020 periodwhen the State recorded 74 deaths. At the time, extreme events occurred more spread across the Minas Gerais territory.
According to a report presented at the time by the Hydrometeorological Monitoring and Critical Events Management, of the Minas Gerais Water Management Institute (Igam), the capital Belo Horizonte and the municipalities of Florestal (Central region), Ibirité (Grande BH), Viçosa (Zona da Mata) and Diamantina (Vale do Jequitinhonha) had in that period a volume of rain higher than expected for the entire year.
In the current period, as seen, deaths caused by rain are concentrated in the cities hit by this week’s storms. And o, since there are still missing people and the rains are expected to continue in the month of March.
Civil Defense data indicate that, of the total number of deaths registered since the beginning of October, 62 were in Juiz de Fora; 6 in Ubá; 4 in Eugenópolis; while the cities of Muriaé, Sabará, São Thomé das Letras, Pouso Alegre, João Pinheiro, Porteirinha, Santana do Riacho and Santa Rita de Caldas recorded one death each.
With one death identified on Friday afternoon and which does not yet appear in the Civil Defense digital daily bulletins, the total number of victims is 81.
Resource management
As shown by the Estadãothe government of Romeu Zema (Novo) reduced spending on the Support Program for Combat and Response to Damage Caused by Rains by 95%. According to data from the State Transparency Portal, expenses fell from R$134,829,787.08 in 2023 to R$5,875,482.98 in 2025.
The government states that the numbers do not consider the investments made by management in swimming pools in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, which includereach the order of R$ 200 millionnor the purchase of Civil Defense kits to serve more than 600 municipalities, with an estimated cost of R$70 million.
Furthermore, the city of Juiz de Fora, where around 25% of the population lives in a risk area, used only 16.5% of the federal funding allocated to slope containment works via the Growth Acceleration Program. Of the R$70.2 million foreseen for three contracts, only R$11.56 million was used by the city hall.
The city, according to the National Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alerts (Cemaden), has the 9th largest population in Brazil living in risk areas. Last Wednesday (25), Civil Defense informed 800 families living in regions susceptible to landslides that they would need to leave their homes for safety reasons.
Regarding the use of only 16.5% of resources for slope containment works, Juiz de Fora city hall responded that works financed by large federal programs, such as PAC, follow technical rite and strict control. The administration also stated that interventions in risk areas mapped by Civil Defense and completed since 2023 total almost R$22.1 million in investments.
