Powerful mudslides and flooding swept through a mountainous region north of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and killed at least 94 people.

A month's worth of rain overnight reportedly sent devastating mudslides and floods that also left firefighters and desperate residents searching for missing victims on Wednesday.

Petrópolis, a historic "imperial city" nestled in the mountains about 70 miles from Rio de Janeiro's beaches, was directly in the path of the deluge when it hit on Tuesday, The Guardian reported.

The state fire department noted that the area received 25.8 centimeters or 10 inches of rain within three hours on Tuesday, nearly as much as in the previous 30 days combined.

As searchers went through the wreckage, city mayor Rubens Bomtempo said the death toll could still rise. Twenty-one people had been found alive.

Intense rainfall resulted in mudslides that destroyed scores of homes on the hillsides above Petrópolis, as well as flooding that caused havoc on the streets below.

On social media, images and videos showed rivers of mud sweeping through the city's streets, washing everything along the way: trees, vehicles, and even people.

According to Brazil's National Meteorological Institute, the rains that caused the disaster were the heaviest the city had seen since 1952, New York Times reported.

Same Tragedy Occurred in 2011 That Killed Over 900 People in Brazil

Researcher Cássia de Castro Martins Ferreira of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora said they have witnessed a "really extreme event."

Ferreira, who studied extreme weather events in the region, said that it did not simply rain, but it was an "extraordinary amount of water that poured down."

The disaster served as a bitter reminder of 2011 for many Petrópolis residents, as similar mudslides killed more than 900 people in the region, making it the worst natural disaster in Brazil's history.

Among those searching for missing neighbors on Wednesday was 22-year-old Carlos Eduardo Ribeiro, who lives across the street from one hillside neighborhood swept by the mudslides. He said he had been rescuing children and the elderly from the wreckage.

"We've been digging for hours, hoping to find more people," he said. "My friends are missing, their houses are gone, (and) everything is buried in mud. It turned into a graveyard."

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Geography and City Growth Cause Extreme Weather Events

Petrópolis was established in the mid-19th century by the Brazilian emperor Pedro II and held court there during the hot summer months.

According to Ferreira, its unique geography makes it vulnerable to excessive rainfall. The location is frequently where hot-air masses from the coast collide with the colder temperatures common at higher altitudes, resulting in storms.

Besides the enormous number of extreme weather events in Petrópolis, another risk is the city's growth, said Ferreira. Residents have relocated into the hills as Petrópolis has expanded, clearing woods that once served as a mudslide buffer and building homes on terrain that is sometimes too steep and unsuitable for development.

Officials created preparations to prevent a repeat of the 2011 similar tragedy in the region. However, due to lack of funding and political power shifts, those plans have progressed slowly.

Only a few neighborhoods in Petrópolis are equipped with weather-warning sirens, while state and local governments still have not installed such systems in other vulnerable places.

During a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Rio de Janeiro governor Claudio Castro said that preventive measures were needed to keep these tragedies from happening again.

Heavy rains are usual during the summer months in Brazil. However, extreme weather occurrences are growing more common, according to most experts.

Floods in the country's northeast killed at least 20 people and displaced 50,000 people in December, and just as recently as last month, torrential rains slammed over the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, killing dozens of people.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

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