SAO PAULO – Authorities struggled Wednesday to reach dozens of small cities in northern Brazil after floods and mudslides washed out roads and highways. The death toll from the flooding rose to at least 30 people.
Months of heavy rains extending from the Amazon jungle to the Atlantic coast have dislodged nearly 200,000 people from their homes and stranded thousands more in 10 states, according to civil defense officials.
"We are having difficulties getting help to people because many roads have been swept away with the floods," said Abner Ferreira, the civil defense official in the hardest-hit state, Maranhao, where at least eight people have died. Ferreira said at least six highways were shut down.
"We have two helicopters from the air force," Ferreira said. "We are using trucks and boats to get people help."
Television footage showed the rooftops of houses poking out of water in flooded towns and people using boats to move around.
Brazilian army Lt. Ivar Araujo said the water level of a river in one of the most affected regions in Maranhao has been rising about 1 foot (30 centimeters) per day. He said two bridges have been destroyed.
"There are some places that the water is so high that not even a boat can get to people," Araujo said. "Some people don't want to leave their homes but the houses have at least a meter and a half (5 feet) of water or more."
Araujo said the Brazilian army has sent more than 500 soldiers to aid the victims over the past two weeks. He said shelters are full, including a school holding more than 1,000 people.
"I didn't have time to get my things from the house," Francisca Antonia Gomes told Globo's G1 Web site in the state of Piaui. "I lost everything."
The flooding forced owners to close their shops and classes have been canceled in many schools in the affected areas.
"In only three hours it rained as much as we are used to seeing in two months," Odileida Sampaio, the mayor of the Para state city of Altamira, was quoted by the official Agencia Brasil news agency as saying. "It's a complicated situation that is affecting mainly the poor and the business owners."
The rains also interrupted the transfer of iron ore from the Carajas mine. Iron ore, the main ingredient in steel, is shipped overseas from Sao Luis, the state capital of Maranhao. The railway also transports 1,300 people per day. Vale is the world's second-largest mining company and the planet's biggest iron ore producer.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew over the hardest-hit areas on Tuesday, delivering food baskets to shelters and meeting with local officials. Silva promised aid to repair infrastructure, while voicing concerns that global climate change could be responsible for the unusually heavy rains and destruction.
Floods and mudslides late last year in the southern state of Santa Catarina killed more than 100 people, displaced 80,000 and set off a round of brutal looting in a devastated port city by people desperate for drinking water and food.
More rain is expected in the north in coming weeks, officials said.
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Associated Press Writer Tales Azzoni contributed to this repor
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