TERESOPOLIS, Brazil (AFP) - – Brazil is suffering its worst-ever natural disaster after mudslides near Rio de Janeiro killed more than 500 people, the latest toll showed Friday.
Municipal officials in the Serrana region just north of Rio said at least 506 people were killed, surpassing the 437 killed in a 1967 mudslide tragedy that had been previously considered Brazil's biggest disaster.
More bodies were expected to turn up as rescuers finally reached villages cut off because of destroyed roads and bridges in the region.
Frantic efforts to locate survivors and bodies braved the risk of further mudslides, as rain continued to fall on the waterlogged region, making it even more unstable.
"It's very overwhelming. The scenes are very shocking," President Dilma Rousseff said after visiting the area Thursday.
She pledged "strong action" by her government, which has already released 470 million dollars in initial emergency aid and sent seven tonnes of medical supplies.
The catastrophe was seen as her first big test since taking power two weeks ago, replacing her popular predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Storms early Wednesday dumped the equivalent of a month's rain in just a few hours before dawn, sending mudslides slicing through towns and hamlets, destroying homes, roads and bridges and knocking out telephone and power lines. Scene: Grief, and a lucky rescue, in Brazil
The worst affected towns were Novo Friburgo, which recorded 225 deaths, Teresopolis, with 223 deaths, and Petropolis, with 39 deaths, according to municipal officials. Another 19 fatalities were registered in the village of Sumidouro.
The toll of dead from this one disaster was higher than the 473 rain-related deaths recorded for all of Brazil over the span of 2010.
Churches and police stations were turned into makeshift morgues, the smell of decomposing corpses heavy in the warm air. Thousands of survivors took refuge in shelters.
The atmosphere was mournful as the extent of the disaster became apparent in Teresopolis, a mountain town devastated by the mudslides.
Bodies piled up in makeshift morgues while, crowds of people desperate to learn the fate of loved ones gathered outside.
They looked at photos of faces disfigured by the surprise of death or the ravages of decomposition. Many of the bodies were those of children, women and old people -- all physically less apt to survive nature's onslaught.
"I can't go inside. I don't have courage to," said one woman, Ana Maria, 40.
A fireman described the gut-wrenching ordeal.
"You have no idea how hard it is to see the bodies of so many children... It's horrible," he told AFP.
Elsewhere in the city, hundreds of people left homeless by the calamity sat around on mattresses in a gymnasium, still in shock. Some were injured.
Volunteers carrying food, clothing and hygiene products were tending to them, amid a growing chaos of bags, baby carriages, toys and pathetic piles of possessions that represented all they had left.
Edmar Da Rosa, a 44-year-old laborer whose face was badly lacerated, looked lost and unable to comprehend the deaths of family members.
He said a retaining wall fell on part of his house that he shared with his wife, three children and a grandson.
"My wife died. My grandson ended up dying. And the others are hurt," he said.
A few meters (feet) away, 59-year-old Joao de Lima clutched a doll with desolation written on his face.
"I lost my four daughters and everything I had," he said softly.
