SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The death toll from last week’s heavy rains in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais has risen to 50, with 65 people reported injured and two more missing, according to a statement from rescue workers on Tuesday.
The human losses are most concentrated in the state capital Belo Horizonte, with 13 dead, according to the latest numbers.
Some 28,000 people have been displaced or evacuated from their homes, rescue workers said.
Last week, Minas Gerais recorded the wettest 24-hour period since precipitation records began 110 years ago, with accumulated rainfall of 172 millimeters from Thursday to Friday, according to the government’s meteorological agency Inmet.
The flooding comes a year after rains allegedly contributed to the collapse of a tailings dam in the town of Brumadinho, also in Minas Gerais, killing more than 250 people in one of the world’s worst mining disasters.
