Horrifying Pictures Of Brazil Floods and Mudslides

‘We have to help those who are alive,’ he said. ‘There is no more help for those who are dead. I’ve cried a lot and sometimes my mind goes blank and I almost forget what happened. But we have to do what we must to help the living.’

While Carvalho and others are angry at the lack of government help, they also seem oddly resigned, as if having to save themselves after Brazil’s worst natural disaster in four decades were not unusual.

Grief: Relatives of a suspected landslide victim wait for news at the morgue in Teresopolis, Rio de Janeiro

Too much to bear: A relative of one of the landslide victims collapsed during the burial at the the cemetery in Teresopolis

At the base of the steep hills leading up to Carvalho’s Campo Grande neighborhood, only a few firefighters and two federal policemen were seen – and they were not helping people carry supplies.

Local and state fire departments said they had deployed 2,500 rescuers, while 225 federal policeman were in the area to maintain order. The federal government has been trying to fly in 11 helicopters to remote areas, but has found it difficult because of poor weather conditions.

Simone dos Santos Pinto, a 36-year-old resident of the Campo Grande neighborhood who was hiking supplies up to her sick, 65-year-old father, said there was no help, and she could not understand why.

‘There is nothing,’ she said, plastic grocery backs strapped across her shoulders and in her hands. ‘I’m leaving my father up there and my house is about to collapse. But what am I going to do?’

The mudslides hit an area of nearly 900 square miles in an area of lush, forested mountains about 40 miles north of Rio. The deaths are centred in Teresopolis and three other towns, where many wealthier citizens of Rio maintain weekend homes.

Vigil: Leao the dog sits for a second consecutive day next to the grave of her owner Cristina Maria Cesario Santana was killed in the landslides

Toll: Workers at the cemetery in Teresopolis, near Rio de Janiero have dug dozens of graves to receive landslide victims

In the centre of Teresopolis, hundreds of homeless are sheltered in a local gymnasium in the town, where food and medical care are abundant.

While the disaster has destroyed the homes of rich and poor alike, the deaths are overwhelmingly seen in humbler areas, where homes are flimsier, most lacking foundations, and located in steep areas known to be at high-risk of mudslides.

In those areas, horror stories are trickling out as survivors make it to town.

Fernando Perfista dug out the body of his eldest child from the mud, then looked for the 12-year-old’s three missing siblings. He sheltered the boy’s remains in a refrigerator to keep scavenging dogs at bay while he searched.

After failing to find his other children in the Fazenda Alpina area of Teresopolis, the 31-year-old ranch hand built a gurney from scrap wood, carried his son’s body down a mudslide-wrecked slope before dawn Friday and buried him in a homemade coffin.

Burial: A man stands near coffins of victims of the catastrophe at the Trilha do Ceu graveyard, Conselheiro Paulino district, Nova Friburgo

Taking stock: A family looks around their destroyed house in an area affected by a mudslide and where they believe dozens of victims are still buried, at Morro do Dede neighbourhood in Nova Friburgo

Then Perfista waited with a crowd in the rain outside the Teresopolis morgue for a chance to plead with officials to help him continue his search. He clutched plastic-covered pictures of his three other children: a chubby one-year-old and two smiling girls, ages 6 and 10.

‘My children are in there, in that river bank, under that mud,’ he said blankly.

Amauri Souza, a 38-year-old who helped Perfista carry his son’s body, said a few helicopters had reached isolated areas, but ‘they’re only taking down the wounded.’

He said officials were not dropping off body bags or food or water, adding that he feared the consequences if aid did not arrive soon.

‘The water is rotten, but people are forced to drink it. There is no food. I had meat in my house, but it’s all gone bad,’ Souza said.

Salvage: A man carries a satellite dish recovered from the debris after a landslide in Campo Grande neighborhood, in Teresopolis

Utter devastation: People pick their way among the debris

He said he pulled his wife and six-month-old daughter onto higher ground just as a churning mass of water, mud and rocks hit early Wednesday.

But his wife’s parents were lost – he heard their screams for help as they washed away. Their bodies hadn’t been found by Friday.

‘It’s a scene of war and total loss,’ said Souza.

Officials fear the death toll could rise once remote areas are reached. Authorities did not offer an estimate on the missing, but local reports put it in the hundreds.

Rio state’s Civil Defence department said on its website Saturday that 257 people were killed in Teresopolis and 267 in Nova Friburgo, a 45-mile drive to the west that draws hikers and campers to mountain trails, waterfalls and dramatic views of lush green slopes.

Forty-nine died in neighbouring Petropolis and 18 in the town of Sumidouro.

Downpour: Brazilian army soldiers carry the coffin of a landslide victim at a cemetery in Nova Friburgo