The Civil Police of Minas Gerais confirmed that it reached 70 the number of deaths due to the heavy rains that hit the Zona da Mata Mineirasince last Monday night (23).
This Saturday (28), the body of a 48-year-old man was received at the Juiz de Fora Medical-Legal Post. He was listed as missing in the Linhares neighborhood. Therefore, Juiz de Fora now records 64 deaths, while Ubá records six.
According to the Minas Gerais Fire Department, three people are still missing: one in Juiz de Fora and two in Ubá. There were no records of deaths or missing people in Matias Barbosa, another municipality in the region damaged by the storms.
Firefighters also report that almost 4 thousand people are homeless in the two cities, 3.5 thousand in Juiz de Fora and 396 in Ubá. 725 people are homeless: 700 in Juiz de Fora and 25 in Ubá,
Almost 200 people were rescued alive after being trapped amid rubble. .
Assistance and monitoring
The government of Minas Gerais announced the advance of R$8 million for Ubá and R$38 million for Juiz de Fora, destined for recovery actions and assistance to affected families. Three days of official mourning were also declared throughout the state.
Civil Defense and Inmet maintain a “great danger” alert for the region due to soil saturation, which increases the risk of new landslides and floods, even in the case of less intense rain.
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“Great suffering”, says governor
The governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema (Novo), stated that the state is experiencing a period of “great suffering”. He also said that he closely follows the operations and that he traveled to the affected municipalities to provide support.
“I determined the full mobilization of our Civil Defense and Fire Department teams to provide support to Juiz de Fora and Ubá after the strong storm. My absolute priority now is the rescue and support for the victims. The State is alongside the miners of Juiz de Fora and Ubá at this difficult time”, he declared.
Forecast
According to Cemaden, the possibility of continuation or new occurrences of floods, flooding in areas with poor drainage and flooding in the region of Juiz de Fora (MG) is considered high, due to the critical conditions of urban drainage after the accumulation of recent days and the forecast of light rain for tomorrow and the next few days.
To date, the two municipalities have a total of more than 3,500 homeless and homeless people. Due to the storm, the cities declared a state of public calamity, and a contingency plan had to be put in place.
