RIO DE JANEIRO — Flooding and mudslides from the heaviest deluge ever recorded in Rio killed at least 100 people and left many more homeless, officials said Wednesday as the rains finally began to ease.
A minimum 2,000 people were forced from their homes by punishing rain that filled streets with raging torrents and ground Brazils’ second-biggest city to a halt the previous day. All told, about 11 inches fell in the space of 36 hours.
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“When the man upstairs sends us this much rain, there isn’t a thing that anyone can do,” Pedro Souza said as he tried to unclog a sewer drain with a broom outside an apartment building in Copacabana.
The death toll was expected to rise as rescue workers picked through tons of mud that barreled through precarious, hillside slums, where most of the deaths were registered.
Rio de Janeiro state Gov. Sergio Cabral declared a three-day mourning period, and children were kept from schools for a second straight day.
As the sun began to emerge in parts of Rio, streets that had teemed with floodwaters now filled with traffic as many residents returned to work.
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes urged people to stay home, however.
Officials reported 104 people injured and 65 missing, and 10,000 homes in the city of 6 million still threatened by mudslides.
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