Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: Torrential rains triggered flooding and mudslides that killed 79 people in Rio de Janeiro state including dozens in the hillside shantytowns surrounding the city of Rio, authorities said Tuesday. Civil defense officials said about half of the fatalities occurred in Rio de Janeiro city, where authorities urged residents to remain indoors and not venture downtown, where streets were impassable."All the major streets of the city are closed because of the floods," Eduardo Paes, mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro said. "Each and every person who attempts to enter them will be at enormous risk."
In addition to Tuesday's dire warnings, local authorities closed schools to help keep residents off streets. In some parts of the area, abandoned cars were partially submerged, while others were stalled on local roads with motorists still stranded inside. Civil defense officials said most of the casualties were the result of landslides in the hillside slums that ring the city.
Flooding also wreaked havoc with air traffic, causing serious airport delays while in some areas of the hilly metropolitan area of some 16 million people floodwaters unleashed mudslides -- a recurring scourge, especially in Rio's impoverished favelas, or shantytowns….
A favela in Rio, shot in 2007 by Fabio Pozzebom/ABr (Agencia Brasil), under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Brazil license
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