São Paulo landslides another Brazilian foretold tragedy

“On Saturday morning, it was hot, it wasn’t raining, so we spent the day on the beach. We had planned to go to a party in [the nearby beach town of] Maresias that night, so we had a nap before going out. By the time we woke up, around 8 pm, the heavy rain had already started.”

During Brazil’s Carnival holidays, the country’s coastline is always teeming with tourists, with groups of friends or family seeking to avoid the chaos of Carnival in big cities, or just enjoy some well-earned days resting on the beach.

Matheus, a 25-year-old civil engineer from São Paulo, was one of the millions who headed for the coast, renting a house with 12 friends in the beach town of Juquehy, in the city of São Sebastião on the northern coast of São Paulo state.

He tells The Brazilian Report that, going by the intensity of the rain on Saturday evening, he and his friends were convinced it would be no more than a summer downpour, nothing to interrupt their plans of entertainment for that night.

“But by 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock, midnight, the rain was still going — and just as heavy,” he says. “We decided to cancel.”

As the 13 friends turned in for the night, Matheus heard a loud banging noise. “It sounded like a truck was trying to break through the front gate, we thought some guys had turned up to rob the house.”

Heading out to the house’s balcony, Matheus saw the road in front left in complete chaos. “We realized then that the noise we heard was a landslide.”

Torrential rainfall across the northern coast of São Paulo state has caused landslides and floods in several areas, leaving at least 48 people dead and thousands displaced. Thirty-six people are officially missing, but numbers are set to increase over the coming days.

Nineteen victims have already been identified, among them a seven-year-old child.

In a 24-hour period between Saturday and Sunday, the beach cities of São Sebastião and Bertioga saw...