Cyclone that hit the south of Brazil, has already claimed the lives of 22 people

An extratropical cyclone that began forming over the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday and hit Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul this Monday has already killed at least 22 people. Of the total death toll, 21 were from the state of Rio Grande do Sul and another was from the neighboring state of Santa Catarina, which was also affected but with lesser intensity.

As of Tuesday morning, the total death toll in Rio Grande do Sul was officially six, but firefighters found 15 dead in a single house in the town of Muchum. The town of 4,961 is completely flooded and firefighters were moving through the former streets in a boat looking for stranded people when they found a house with 15 deadly victims who had probably taken refuge there trying to escape the brutal level of the Takwari River but were surprised by the extremely fast advance water.

Muchum is completely isolated from the rest of the state, as the bridge that connected it to the neighboring town of Roca Salles was washed away by flood waters. In Roca Sales, a woman died Tuesday afternoon as she was very close to being rescued when a cable carrying her to a fire helicopter snapped and threw her into a raging river 13 meters above normal.

The cyclone, the fifth in a row, recorded this year in a country where this natural phenomenon did not exist, came with wind speeds of more than 100 km per hour and heavy rain, in some cities more than 200 mm of rain fell in a few hours. The winds and rain left a huge trail of devastation in the 88 cities of Rio Grande do Sul that have not yet recovered from the June cyclone, destroying houses, bringing down roads and leaving dozens of cities without electricity, water and telephones, or because poles , supporting wires were uprooted by a hurricane or because utility companies decided to cut power to avoid more deaths after people were electrocuted in flooded homes.