Thousands ousted as city destroys flood-risk slums
The threat of new mudslides has forced city chiefs to begin evicting 2,600 families from at-risk areas with the beginning of a slum demolition programme on flood-hit Rio de Janeiro's hills.
The danger also kept a shutdown in place for the popular trolley ride that carries tourists up a mountain to the famed Christ the Redeemer statue.
Daniele Wall, a spokeswoman for Rio's health and civil defence department, said the statue remained open to visitors.
Tourists can climb the mountain by car, but will not get the kinds of views that are available from the trolleys that circle their way to the top of one of South America's most impressive tourist destinations.
Yesterday the city said families being evacuated from risky areas would receive an allowance to pay for housing until they were relocated to new homes provided by the Brazilian government. Some residents have been evacuated to temporary shelters.
The government did not say exactly how many people were being ousted, but Brazil generally classifies families as having at least four members - meaning the number of those forced out initially was probably more than 10,000. They were being given a monthly stipend of 415 Reais (€173.92) to pay for rent.
People wept while hauling appliances and furniture away to unknown destinations as workers using heavy equipment and sledgehammers demolished squat brick and concrete homes built on dangerous hillsides at risk of washing away and burying more people.
Officials said at least 250 homes would probably be demolished within the next two weeks. Altogether, nearly 13,000 families are living in homes at risk of slides and will have to be relocated.
"Convincing them that they are living in a high-risk area is an arduous task, but we don't want to lose any more lives," assistant mayor Andre Santos said.
"This is a tough job. These people have been living here for 30, 40 years in homes that they had to build under difficult circumstances. But what we are doing at this moment is absolutely necessary."
Slum resident Andrea Biedade said she did not know how she would find a new home for her and her 12-year-old son after her home was targeted for demolition.
"I was born and raised here and now I have to leave," she said. "A lot of people who grew up here are all leaving now."
Rio state governor Sergio Cabral said 980m Reais (€410.8m) would be spent on new home construction, but gave no details on when the homes would be delivered.
Churches and samba schools that put on Rio's carnival parades have been sheltering families since last week, when heavy rains and landslides killed at least 232 people in Rio de Janeiro state, firefighters said.
Most deaths happened in Niteroi, a city of about 500,000 people across the bay from Rio, where up to 60 houses that had been built atop a giant, unstable landfill site were destroyed in a single slide.
