Rescuers uncovered more corpses buried under mountains of mud and wrecked homes on Friday as the death toll from torrential rains and massive flooding topped 500, Brazil's deadliest natural disaster in four decades. Rivers of mud tore through towns this week in the mountainous Serrana region outside Rio de Janeiro, levelling houses, throwing cars atop buildings and leaving more than 10,000 people seeking shelter and aid.
The extent of the damage exposed major flaws in emergency planning and disaster prevention in a country that aspires to attain developed-nation status in coming years. The disaster also highlighted the huge challenges that new President Dilma Rousseff faces as she strives to upgrade Brazil's creaking infrastructure. Police were deployed to keep order after looters raided some stores for food and scoured damaged homes for valuables.
At least 532 people were killed by the flooding in a handful of towns - some of them popular tourist destinations - about 60 miles (100 km) north of Rio and left more than 13,500 people homeless, according to local authorities.
"The number of deaths is going to rise quite a bit. There are still a lot of people buried," said Rubens Placido, a fireman in the hard-hit town of Nova Friburgo, adding that continued rainfall was complicating the search efforts. Rains were intermittent on Friday, though weather forecasts showed them continuing through the weekend in the region.
The floods have not affected Brazil's main export crops - soy, sugar cane, oranges and coffee - but likely caused billions of dollars in damage. The federal government has already earmarked 780 million reais ($460 million) in emergency aid for the rescue and reconstruction efforts.
Television footage showed heavy construction equipment digging through jumbles of downed trees and rubble alongside the broken asphalt that three days ago carried street traffic. Streets were reduced to rivers of muddy water after the equivalent of a month's rain fell in 24 hours. Overwhelmed morgues had to temporarily store bodies in churches or police stations. Refrigeration trucks were used to haul them away.
Graves were dug in the largest cemetery in the town of Teresopolis as the city's other burial centres were either full or buried under mud. Teresopolis Mayor Jorge Mario estimated that rebuilding the city would cost at least 500 million reais ($298 million). Emergency teams could only reach the worst-hit areas on foot and were digging through the rubble with their hands in search of survivors because vehicles and heavy equipment still couldn't get through.