RIO DE JANEIRO — Rodrigo de Almeira had dug for 15 hours through mud and debris, and he looked like it. Auburn mud covered his head, his ripped shirt, his torn jeans and his rubber sandals.
When asked Wednesday whether he had saved anyone from the massive landslide in the slum where he lives, he shook his head. Of the 138 people confirmed dead from Rio’s heaviest rains on record, at least 18 died in his shantytown, Pleasure Hill.
“Right there at least 15 people I know died,” Almeira said, staring at a massive mound of mud and debris.
Wood planks — remnants of the shacks engulfed by the landslide — poked through the mud as 30 rescue workers dug at it with picks and shovels, still looking for survivors.
“We found a guy alive this morning, so we had hope,” said Almeira, 28. “He didn’t make it. We were told he died on his way to the hospital.”
Because of the continuing rains, steep hillsides and loose earth, officials said there had been few successful rescues. One man, Carlos Eduardo Silva dos Santos, 24, was pulled alive from under a concrete wall in western Rio. Firefighters said they had no count on how many people had been rescued.
The death toll could easily rise. An official with Rio’s fire department said at least 60 people were missing Wednesday afternoon.
And although the rain that poured down without interruption from Monday afternoon through Wednesday morning had finally begun to let up, it was raining again Wednesday night and more rain was expected through the weekend.
Nearly all the deaths occurred in landslides that engulfed the slums, yet another reminder that life in one of the world’s most famous playgrounds is much different for the poor than it is for the rich.
