Brazil: Carnival of Mourning

Carnival of Mourning

! February is usually carnival time in Petropolis, a mountain resort near Rio de Janeiro. But two weeks of storms washed away this year's pre-Lenten samba parade and general merrymaking. More than 20 in. of rain pelted Petropolis (pop. 250,000) and other cities, triggering floods and landslides that buried whole neighborhoods in tons of mud. By last week the devastation had left more than 200 people dead and 600 injured. But at least 17 people, some buried for 48 hours, were saved when civil defense teams pumped oxygen through tubes pushed into the mud.

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