The death toll from
storms in Rio de Janeiro state has reached 661 as rescue works enter the sixth
day Monday, local authorities said.

A rescue team looks for the bodies of victims, in Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Jan. 17, 2011. (Xinhua/Agencia Estado)

The rain in the state’s
mountainous region finally stopped Monday, making it easier for rescue workers
to continue searching for the bodies of the storms’ victims. However, the
weather forecast still predicts rain for the next days.

During the weekend, it
rained again in the cities damaged by the storms, causing even more damage.
Several regions are still blocked by mudslides and are only accessible by
helicopters.

The electricity and water
distribution has already been reestablished in part of the region, the
authorities said. The telephone services are slowly returning to normal as well,
but many regions remain without coverage and residents cannot communicate with
their relatives to tell them that they are alive.

“We do not have
telephones, we can not contact with the people who want to know if we are well
or not,” said citizen Lucineia de Oliveira.

A field hospital was set
up by the Brazilian Air Force in the region, the fourth so far. Besides tending
to the injured, doctors are also vaccinating the survivors against tetanus and
alerting the population for the high risk of leptospirosis.

Seven towns in the
mountain range region have declared a state of calamity: Nova Friburgo,
Teresopolis, Petropolis, Sao Jose do Vale do Rio Preto, Sumidouro, Bom Jardim,
and Areal. According to the authorities, the reconstruction of the damaged towns
will require about 2 million reais (1.1 million U.S. dollars).

Amid the disaster, there
are reports of shop owners’ taking advantage of the disaster to raise prices
excessively. The Rio police, however, warned that those shop owners might be
arrested for crime against the popular economy or even extortion.

“The measures must be as
rigorous as possible, to inhibit such behavior,” said the police’s public
relations officer, Colonel Lima Castro.

Rio’s governor Sergio
Cabral requested a change in the regulations of the federal government’s housing
program Minha Casa Minha Vida, so that all housing units in the program are
reserved to the population living in risk areas. The governor also denied that
the distribution of donations in the damaged area is uncoordinated.

“There is a lot of federal
and state government structure helping the towns,” he said.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet